Heads firmware
Boot firmware in Privacy & security
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.
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.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 75%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Verifies boot integrity with TPM
“It uses TPM with a hardware key to verify the boot integrity without proprietary blobs and with full control of the user.”
Comment from 30 Jun 2026 in “European digital ID wallets are a gift to Google and Apple” “Qubes can be used together with Heads and a hardware key to verify the boot integrity. Works for me.”
Comment from 14 Sep 2026 in “Registration without a phone number on Signal will use zero-knowledge proofs” “You can use TPM with Heads and a hardware key to ensure Windows can't infect the other partition.”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “Microsoft isn't removing Copilot from Windows 11, it's just renaming it” - Comment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Apple patches decade-old iOS zero-day, possibly exploited by commercial spyware”
Defends against evil maid attacks
“I use Heads with a hardware key to defend myself from an Evil Maid.”
Comment from 1 May 2026 in “The Whistleblower Who Uncovered the NSA's 'Big Brother Machine'” “Works for me and protects from the Evil Maid attack.”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Microsoft Abruptly Terminates VeraCrypt Account, Halting Windows Updates” No proprietary blobs involved
“It uses TPM with a hardware key to verify the boot integrity without proprietary blobs and with full control of the user.”
Comment from 30 Jun 2026 in “European digital ID wallets are a gift to Google and Apple” “In this case, no proprietary software is involved.”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Update Your Secure Boot Cert Before It Expires” Works with Librem laptops and key
“I checked that it works on two Librem laptops with a Librem Key”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Update Your Secure Boot Cert Before It Expires” “It works well with Heads and Librem Key.”
Comment from 8 May 2026 in “Google Broke reCAPTCHA for De-Googled Android Users”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Limited adoption and hardware support
“does not appear to be widely used or support a lot of hardware”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Update Your Secure Boot Cert Before It Expires” Weaker than better implementations
“borderline zero security and theater compared to actually decent implementations”
Comment from 8 May 2026 in “Google Broke reCAPTCHA for De-Googled Android Users” “Yeah, I wouldn't call heads "best approach on what is available"”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Original GrapheneOS responses to WIRED fact checker”
What people recommend instead
The same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Libreboot | 16 | 9 | 64% | 6 | — | — |
| Heads firmwareThis page | 6 | 2 | 75% | 8 | — | — |
What people said
19 of the 22 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Heads has some important features that Libreboot lacks.”
“I got a PR merged for the first ChromeOS Port using MrChromebox's code as an upstream dependency”
“Qubes can be used together with Heads and a hardware key to verify the boot integrity. Works for me.”
“It uses TPM with a hardware key to verify the boot integrity without proprietary blobs and with full control of the user.”
“does not appear to be widely used or support a lot of hardware”
“I checked that it works on two Librem laptops with a Librem Key”
“In this case, no proprietary software is involved.”
“borderline zero security and theater compared to actually decent implementations”
“It works well with Heads and Librem Key.”
“I use Heads with a hardware key to defend myself from an Evil Maid.”
“Yeah, I wouldn't call heads "best approach on what is available"”
“devices/companies promoting freedom, including Librem 5, Purism, and laptops with Heads”
“if someone tampers with the boot block and falsifies the measurements Heads cannot protect the device”
“You can use TPM with Heads and a hardware key to ensure Windows can't infect the other partition.”
“Works for me and protects from the Evil Maid attack.”
“Heads is updated regularly”
“Heads + TPM is solid but I suspect it is not at the level of Google/Apple secure enclave.”
“TPM with Heads protects my laptop from such attacks just fine.”
“Laptops can already have TPM based on FLOSS (with coreboot with Heads).”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.