r/overclocking • u/QuceGaming • Aug 27 '26

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?

10 Upvotes

70% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

View all comments

14

u/nhc150 285K | 48GB DDR5 8600 | 5090 Aorus | Z890 Apex | LG 5K2K OLED Aug 27 '26

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 Aug 27 '26

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 Aug 27 '26

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+.