# Heads firmware

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/heads/

5 people recommended Heads firmware in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 12 months, in 14 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free firmware that uses a TPM and hardware key to verify boot integrity and resist evil maid attacks. Caveat: few supported devices and weaker than stronger implementations.

Summary written by Claude from 19 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Verifies boot integrity with TPM (4 comments in the sample): "It uses TPM with a hardware key to verify the boot integrity without proprietary blobs and with full control of the user." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48740429)) "Qubes can be used together with Heads and a hardware key to verify the boot integrity. Works for me." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49693318)) "You can use TPM with Heads and a hardware key to ensure Windows can't infect the other partition." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47762453))
- Defends against evil maid attacks (2 comments in the sample): "I use Heads with a hardware key to defend myself from an Evil Maid." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47973943)) "Works for me and protects from the Evil Maid attack." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47695934))
- Works with Librem laptops and key (2 comments in the sample): "I checked that it works on two Librem laptops with a Librem Key" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48633586)) "It works well with Heads and Librem Key." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48069333))
- No proprietary blobs involved (1 comment in the sample): "In this case, no proprietary software is involved." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48632976))

## What people warn about

- Weaker than better implementations (2 comments in the sample): "borderline zero security and theater compared to actually decent implementations" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48069751)) "Yeah, I wouldn't call heads "best approach on what is available" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47954230))
- Limited adoption and hardware support (1 comment in the sample): "does not appear to be widely used or support a lot of hardware" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48634389))

## What people recommend instead

- [Libreboot](https://hackerapproved.com/p/libreboot/): 12 recommend, 3 mixed, 9 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Heads firmware", https://hackerapproved.com/p/heads/ (5 recommend, 1 mixed, 2 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.