cardano-foundation/cardano-wallet v2026-07-23

Release v2026-07-23

on GitHub

Node Compatibility

Compatible with cardano-node@11.0.1.

Docker Image

Image

Highlights

This release upgrades wallet root-key storage to v2 (Argon2id + PBKDF2) with transparent migration of existing wallets, continues the cardano-api removal by migrating the unsigned Shelley transaction builder and adding ledger-native mint/script-witness support, and hardens entropy sources used for recovery phrases, session keys, and Byron RndState. CI/CD moves remaining Linux and release jobs onto nix-enabled runners, and Windows release gating switches from a long preprod E2E to a short local-cluster smoke.

Changes

Added

• Root-key storage v2: Argon2id AEAD for passphrase authentication with PBKDF2-encrypted root key for derivation/signing; opportunistic silent migration from v1 on successful passphrase use (#5294)
• Script-witness support in Transaction.Ledger (#5291)
• Plumb mint values through ledger transaction builders (#5287)

Changed

• Route signed transactions through the ledger constructor (#5286)
• Migrate unsigned Shelley transaction builder off cardano-api (#5292)
• Windows release/CI E2E: local-cluster smoke (TRANS_CREATE_01x) instead of preprod cold sync; Windows named-pipe support in local-cluster (#5321)

Fixed

• Generate suggested recovery phrases with the system CSPRNG (#5298)
• Generate session keys with the system CSPRNG (#5306)
• Harden Byron RndState: seed from the system CSPRNG and redact the generator (#5307)
• Bound cardano-wallet-unit memory use (#5310)
• Repair unit-test fixtures and revive wallet-unit CI shards (#5312)
• Normalize pool DB property test harness (own the DBLayer per evaluation) (#5315)
• Retry pool-list check after epoch-3 retirement in STAKE_POOLS_JOIN_03 (#5318)
• Clean docker boot-sync workspace after cancellation (#5296)

CI/CD

• Run Linux CI on nix-enabled-runners (#5305)
• Migrate docs and auto-approve workflows to nix-enabled-runners (#5308)
• Run remaining Linux workflow jobs on nix-enabled-runners (#5320)
• Release pipeline: run Linux jobs on nix-enabled-runners (#5316)
• Shorten memory-benchmark temp root (#5284)
• Use Mithril snapshots for every restoration benchmark run (#5279)
• Merge back v2026-05-11 version bump (#5299)

API changes

Additive response field only — not a breaking change.

Wallet responses that include passphrase metadata (Shelley, Byron, and
shared wallets that store a root key) now expose an optional
passphrase.encryption_method string:

• scrypt — legacy
• pbkdf2-hmac-sha512 — root-key storage v1
• argon2id-v2 — root-key storage v2 (Argon2id + PBKDF2)

The field is absent for wallets with no stored passphrase (e.g.
watch-only / account-public-key wallets). Existing wallets migrate from
v1 to v2 transparently on successful passphrase use
(#5294).

No request schemas, endpoints, or status codes changed.

Known Issues

• (#5322) OpenAPI documents passphrase.encryption_method: argon2id-v2 for Byron/Icarus wallet responses, but those flavors never store or migrate to root-key V2 in this release (V1 only). Clients cannot select a scheme on create; the field is response-only.

• (ADP-2953) Revision of cardano-node is not reported within version in release bundle binary for Windows.

• (ADP-2635) Database connections do not seem to gracefully terminate on stopping the wallet.

• (ADP-2298) Deposit_returned is falsely reported on some incoming transactions (intermittently).

• (ADP-1831) cardano-wallet version from docker image does not report revision.

Signatures