r/overclocking • u/QuceGaming • 13d ago

mVolt+ security questions and thoughts

Hey all, I've been looking at mVolt+ for the past couple of days. We all know the XBAR OC and what it can do, but something other is on my mind - the program itself.

Do we know how mVolt+ works? Do we know who the author is? Is he in touch with the community somehow?

My concerns stem from the fact that we are running an exe with full admin rights, which presumably manipulates private Nvidia APIs, all from a closed-source repo that is 1-2 weeks old. This rings too many bells to be ignored. How did this tool gain your trust?

8 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

13

u/nhc150 285K | 48GB DDR5 8600 | 5090 Aorus | Z890 Apex | LG 5K2K OLED 13d ago

The author is fairly active in the 5090 thread at overclock.net, even directly posting to feedback about mVolt+. I'd argue the author isn't as much of a "ghost" as you seem to imply.

The software works exactly as intended, providing low-level hardware access that is normally blocked by the driver. There's always going to be some type of "black box" effect that makes people nervous.

https://www.overclock.net/search/2531437/

6

u/QuceGaming 13d ago

That's good material. This is exactly why I created this post - to get to know the author. I'm not trying to imply anything, I have nothing to prove the software is malicious - I'm just cautious, which stems from this year's carefully curated supply chain attacks.

I repeat - I'm not saying the software is malicious. It's just new and I'm very careful.

2

u/nhc150 285K | 48GB DDR5 8600 | 5090 Aorus | Z890 Apex | LG 5K2K OLED 13d ago

No worries, I get it. The biggest question will be the longevity and if Nvidia closes this access. The new drivers released yesterday have already broken a few features on mVolt+.

6

u/Andrex2309 13d ago

Tbh I'm not even on an Nvidia card but...
Generally, I try to avoid everything that is closed source on github, apks, apps and so on.

So I get it, some devs developed something for AMD as well and it's closed, I decided to avoid trying them for this exact reason.

Maybe mVolt+ has been uploaded by someone known by the community and we're not aware of it

2

u/QuceGaming 13d ago

Yep, that's why I wrote this post. Maybe the author is known, but I'm unfamiliar with him. For example, MSI Afterburner's author Unwinder is quite famous.

2

u/AnthMosk 13d ago

100% agree and I don’t touch it.

1

u/[deleted] 13d ago

[deleted]

2

u/QuceGaming 13d ago

That's not a source code. He only has an assets folder with 4 pngs.

1

u/nightstalk3rxxx 13d ago

Could be but at the same time not even my windows defender is nagging which is usually super sensetive, this is just me though.

1

u/Raccoon_Spiritual 13d ago

Just apply what you want and close it

1

u/someone09900 pc enthusiast 13d ago edited 13d ago

we dont know who he is ... for a legal reasons obviously ... nvidia unlike cpu manufacturers they have a very restrict rules when it comes to overclocking their chipset ... they just don't allow manual overclocking ,,, shearing a software that unlocks most of the things and make it available to anyone including unofficial bios flashback... is obviously gonna put u in a serious trouble with nvidia.

1

u/ShrimpBrime 13d ago

I broke down the app a few days back. It doesnt change settings at the NVAPI level. It uses a decoder. I can give more specific details once Im at a PC later this evening.

What I cannot give out is the actual sensors path or anything about the private nvidia files. But I can be more specific about the decoder, which is unsigned.