[SOLVED] Verifying BIOS checksum for MSI AMD B450 Tomahawk 7c02vHD

Nyctfall · 2025-03-30 16:53:02

Sorry if this should be in Off-Topic...

I have an AMD AM4 MSI B450 Tomahawk MAX II (7c02 v3) motherboard.
I was going to update the AMI BIOS to either the latest stable 7c02vHD, or the beta 7c02vHE2(Beta version). But the MSI UEFI signing keys hack necessitates that I cross-reference the file integrity... somehow.

If anyone has resources for verifying BIOS files before installing them to the motherboard, providing them would be much appreciated! Even if you can't help, thank you in advance for your time and effort. If I could just know the others get the same checksum, that would be great. See also: <MSI AMD Mobo Forum > "Verifying BIOS checksum integrity for MSI AMD B450 Tomahawk 7c02vHD">

I downloaded the files first as recommended by the MSI website, using the browser. Then using cURL with the same link as the browser (query params included). And finally without the URL query params with cURL:

$ curl --verbose --styled-output -L 'https://download.msi.com/bos_exe/mb/7C02vHD.zip' --output '/Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.curl-no-query-params.2025-03-29.7C02vHD.zip'

  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
  0     0    0     0    0     0      0      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--     0* Host download.msi.com:443 was resolved.
* IPv6: 2600:1418:1000:8::17d9:371d, 2600:1418:1000:8::17d9:3718
* IPv4: 23.217.55.200, 23.217.55.190
*   Trying [2600:1418:1000:8::17d9:371d]:443...
* ALPN: curl offers h2,http/1.1
} [5 bytes data]
* TLSv1.3 (OUT), TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
} [512 bytes data]
*  CAfile: /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
*  CApath: none
{ [5 bytes data]
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Server hello (2):
{ [122 bytes data]
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS change cipher, Change cipher spec (1):
{ [1 bytes data]
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Encrypted Extensions (8):
{ [35 bytes data]
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Certificate (11):
{ [2938 bytes data]
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, CERT verify (15):
{ [264 bytes data]
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
{ [52 bytes data]
* TLSv1.3 (OUT), TLS change cipher, Change cipher spec (1):
} [1 bytes data]
* TLSv1.3 (OUT), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
} [52 bytes data]
* SSL connection using TLSv1.3 / TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 / x25519 / RSASSA-PSS
* ALPN: server accepted http/1.1
* Server certificate:
*  subject: CN=download.msi.com
*  start date: Mar 24 03:32:21 2025 GMT
*  expire date: Jun 22 03:32:20 2025 GMT
*  subjectAltName: host "download.msi.com" matched cert's "download.msi.com"
*  issuer: C=US; O=Let's Encrypt; CN=R11
*  SSL certificate verify ok.
*   Certificate level 0: Public key type RSA (2048/112 Bits/secBits), signed using sha256WithRSAEncryption
*   Certificate level 1: Public key type RSA (2048/112 Bits/secBits), signed using sha256WithRSAEncryption
*   Certificate level 2: Public key type RSA (4096/152 Bits/secBits), signed using sha256WithRSAEncryption
* Connected to download.msi.com (2600:1418:1000:8::17d9:371d) port 443
* using HTTP/1.x
} [5 bytes data]
> GET /bos_exe/mb/7C02vHD.zip HTTP/1.1
> Host: download.msi.com
> User-Agent: curl/8.12.1
> Accept: */*
>
* Request completely sent off
{ [5 bytes data]
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Newsession Ticket (4):
{ [265 bytes data]
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Newsession Ticket (4):
{ [265 bytes data]
< HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
< Content-Length: 0
< Location: https://download-2.msi.com/bos_exe/mb/7C02vHD.zip
< Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2025 08:14:44 GMT
< Connection: keep-alive
< Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000 ; includeSubDomains ; preload
* Ignoring the response-body
* setting size while ignoring
<
  0     0    0     0    0     0      0      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--     0
* Connection #0 to host download.msi.com left intact
* Issue another request to this URL: 'https://download-2.msi.com/bos_exe/mb/7C02vHD.zip'
  0     0    0     0    0     0      0      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--     0* Host download-2.msi.com:443 was resolved.
* IPv6: (none)
* IPv4: 24.52.24.209, 24.52.24.201
*   Trying 24.52.24.209:443...
* ALPN: curl offers h2,http/1.1
} [5 bytes data]
* TLSv1.3 (OUT), TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
} [512 bytes data]
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Server hello (2):
{ [122 bytes data]
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS change cipher, Change cipher spec (1):
{ [1 bytes data]
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Encrypted Extensions (8):
{ [35 bytes data]
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Certificate (11):
{ [2650 bytes data]
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, CERT verify (15):
{ [264 bytes data]
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
{ [52 bytes data]
* TLSv1.3 (OUT), TLS change cipher, Change cipher spec (1):
} [1 bytes data]
* TLSv1.3 (OUT), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
} [52 bytes data]
* SSL connection using TLSv1.3 / TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 / x25519 / RSASSA-PSS
* ALPN: server accepted http/1.1
* Server certificate:
*  subject: CN=download-2.msi.com
*  start date: Mar 24 03:33:28 2025 GMT
*  expire date: Jun 22 03:33:27 2025 GMT
*  subjectAltName: host "download-2.msi.com" matched cert's "download-2.msi.com"
*  issuer: C=US; O=Let's Encrypt; CN=R10
*  SSL certificate verify ok.
*   Certificate level 0: Public key type RSA (2048/112 Bits/secBits), signed using sha256WithRSAEncryption
*   Certificate level 1: Public key type RSA (2048/112 Bits/secBits), signed using sha256WithRSAEncryption
*   Certificate level 2: Public key type RSA (4096/152 Bits/secBits), signed using sha256WithRSAEncryption
* Connected to download-2.msi.com (24.52.24.209) port 443
* using HTTP/1.x
} [5 bytes data]
> GET /bos_exe/mb/7C02vHD.zip HTTP/1.1
> Host: download-2.msi.com
> User-Agent: curl/8.12.1
> Accept: */*
>
* Request completely sent off
{ [5 bytes data]
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Newsession Ticket (4):
{ [265 bytes data]
* TLSv1.3 (IN), TLS handshake, Newsession Ticket (4):
{ [265 bytes data]
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< Accept-Ranges: bytes
< Content-Type: application/zip
< Last-Modified: Mon, 05 Aug 2024 07:15:32 GMT
< ETag: "ab626b16378342b141abefe96fa3fd87:1723168636.507291"
< Content-Length: 18437982
< Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2025 08:14:44 GMT
< Connection: keep-alive
< Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000 ; includeSubDomains ; preload
<
{ [16044 bytes data]
100 17.5M  100 17.5M    0     0  10.3M      0  0:00:01  0:00:01 --:--:-- 13.5M
* Connection #1 to host download-2.msi.com left intact

Then I hashed the files for checksums:

$ find /Projects/Downloads/BIOS -name '*.zip' -type f -exec sh -c 'echo -n "md5: "; md5sum {}; echo -n "sha1: "; sha1sum {}; echo -n "sha256: "; sha256sum {}; echo -n "sha512: "; sha512sum {}; echo -n "blake2: "; b2sum {}' ';'

md5: ab626b16378342b141abefe96fa3fd87  /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.curl-no-query-params.2025-03-29.7C02vHD.zip
sha1: b0cbd8873e181414a59df649517e9aa8ecfc6869  /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.curl-no-query-params.2025-03-29.7C02vHD.zip
sha256: a9e6850cc30bba15f2de33aa74f05ebe808c02aace6c02a60e14a93eac5bba4c  /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.curl-no-query-params.2025-03-29.7C02vHD.zip
sha512: 298caa013145ecdc90a4ea65f91515066102f4c23362e4bd9b43f9fffa33eb1575f4ee6c4a49531a6488705c919c9e55cea3f9f7f01179716ba8f4a2b96a65f7  /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.curl-no-query-params.2025-03-29.7C02vHD.zip
blake2: 973015c1b59d7b72ecc3abfd2478457421df6df889416de437aa18eb0a669cf2f2108c0f253c83c05c950730ad9479b1ad00f0c4e4b710174fb8c12c4f274591  /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.curl-no-query-params.2025-03-29.7C02vHD.zip
md5: ab626b16378342b141abefe96fa3fd87  /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.curl.2025-03-29.7C02vHD.zip
sha1: b0cbd8873e181414a59df649517e9aa8ecfc6869  /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.curl.2025-03-29.7C02vHD.zip
sha256: a9e6850cc30bba15f2de33aa74f05ebe808c02aace6c02a60e14a93eac5bba4c  /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.curl.2025-03-29.7C02vHD.zip
sha512: 298caa013145ecdc90a4ea65f91515066102f4c23362e4bd9b43f9fffa33eb1575f4ee6c4a49531a6488705c919c9e55cea3f9f7f01179716ba8f4a2b96a65f7  /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.curl.2025-03-29.7C02vHD.zip
blake2: 973015c1b59d7b72ecc3abfd2478457421df6df889416de437aa18eb0a669cf2f2108c0f253c83c05c950730ad9479b1ad00f0c4e4b710174fb8c12c4f274591  /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.curl.2025-03-29.7C02vHD.zip
md5: ab626b16378342b141abefe96fa3fd87  /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.2025-03-26.7C02vHD.zip
sha1: b0cbd8873e181414a59df649517e9aa8ecfc6869  /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.2025-03-26.7C02vHD.zip
sha256: a9e6850cc30bba15f2de33aa74f05ebe808c02aace6c02a60e14a93eac5bba4c  /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.2025-03-26.7C02vHD.zip
sha512: 298caa013145ecdc90a4ea65f91515066102f4c23362e4bd9b43f9fffa33eb1575f4ee6c4a49531a6488705c919c9e55cea3f9f7f01179716ba8f4a2b96a65f7  /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.2025-03-26.7C02vHD.zip
blake2: 973015c1b59d7b72ecc3abfd2478457421df6df889416de437aa18eb0a669cf2f2108c0f253c83c05c950730ad9479b1ad00f0c4e4b710174fb8c12c4f274591  /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.2025-03-26.7C02vHD.zip

I used ClamAV to at least do something to check it:

$ clamdscan -amiz /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.2025-03-26.7C02vHD.zip

WARNING: Ignoring unsupported option --archive-verbose (-a)

----------- SCAN SUMMARY -----------
Infected files: 0
Time: 17.700 sec (0 m 17 s)
Start Date: 2025:03:26 05:01:02
End Date:   2025:03:26 05:01:20

$ unzip -lv /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.2025-03-26.7C02vHD.zip

Archive:  /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.2025-03-26.7C02vHD.zip
 Length   Method    Size  Cmpr    Date    Time   CRC-32   Name
--------  ------  ------- ---- ---------- ----- --------  ----
       0  Stored        0   0% 2024-08-05 15:00 00000000  7C02vHD/
     937  Defl:N      490  48% 2024-08-05 15:14 77b4d75a  7C02vHD/7C02vHx.txt
33554432  Defl:N 18437040  45% 2024-07-24 15:02 678d6494  7C02vHD/E7C02AMS.HD0
--------          -------  ---                            -------
33555369         18437530  45%                            3 files

$ unzip -d /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/ /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.2025-03-26.7C02vHD.zip

Archive:  /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.2025-03-26.7C02vHD.zip
   creating: /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/7C02vHD/
  inflating: /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/7C02vHD/7C02vHx.txt  
  inflating: /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/7C02vHD/E7C02AMS.HD0

File sizes for reference:

$ du -ab /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/7C02vHD

937     /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/7C02vHD/7C02vHx.txt
33554432        /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/7C02vHD/E7C02AMS.HD0
33555369        /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/7C02vHD

$ clamdscan -amiz /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/

WARNING: Ignoring unsupported option --archive-verbose (-a)

----------- SCAN SUMMARY -----------
Infected files: 0
Time: 14.949 sec (0 m 14 s)
Start Date: 2025:03:29 03:17:03
End Date:   2025:03:29 03:17:18

$ clamscan -arvz /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/

Loading:    10s, ETA:   0s [========================>]    8.71M/8.71M sigs
Compiling:   2s, ETA:   0s [========================>]       41/41 tasks

Scanning /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.curl-no-query-params.2025-03-29.7C02vHD.zip
Scanning /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.curl-no-query-params.2025-03-29.7C02vHD.zip!ZIP:7C02vHD/
Scanning /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.curl-no-query-params.2025-03-29.7C02vHD.zip!ZIP:7C02vHD/
Scanning /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.curl-no-query-params.2025-03-29.7C02vHD.zip!ZIP:7C02vHD/7C02vHx.txt
Scanning /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.curl-no-query-params.2025-03-29.7C02vHD.zip!ZIP:7C02vHD/7C02vHx.txt
Scanning /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.curl-no-query-params.2025-03-29.7C02vHD.zip!ZIP:7C02vHD/E7C02AMS.HD0
Scanning /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.curl-no-query-params.2025-03-29.7C02vHD.zip!ZIP:7C02vHD/E7C02AMS.HD0
/Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.curl-no-query-params.2025-03-29.7C02vHD.zip: OK
Scanning /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/7C02vHD/7C02vHx.txt
/Projects/Downloads/BIOS/7C02vHD/7C02vHx.txt: OK
Scanning /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/7C02vHD/E7C02AMS.HD0
/Projects/Downloads/BIOS/7C02vHD/E7C02AMS.HD0: OK
Scanning /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.curl.2025-03-29.7C02vHD.zip
/Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.curl.2025-03-29.7C02vHD.zip: OK
Scanning /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.2025-03-26.7C02vHD.zip
/Projects/Downloads/BIOS/MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.2025-03-26.7C02vHD.zip: OK
Scanning /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/checksums-MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.2025-03-26.txt
/Projects/Downloads/BIOS/checksums-MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.2025-03-26.txt: OK

----------- SCAN SUMMARY -----------
Known viruses: 8706051
Engine version: 1.4.2
Scanned directories: 2
Scanned files: 6
Infected files: 0
Data scanned: 86.88 MB
Data read: 84.75 MB (ratio 1.03:1)
Time: 27.793 sec (0 m 27 s)
Start Date: 2025:03:29 03:18:51
End Date:   2025:03:29 03:19:19
clamscan -arvz /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/  26.36s user 1.10s system 98% cpu 27.800 total

All file sizes for reference:

$ tree -asFD /Projects/Downloads/BIOS

[       4096 Mar 30 11:56]  /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/
├── [       4096 Aug  5  2024]  7C02vHD/
│   ├── [        937 Aug  5  2024]  7C02vHx.txt
│   └── [   33554432 Jul 24  2024]  E7C02AMS.HD0
├── [      64532 Mar 30 11:56]  checksums-MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.2025-03-26.txt
├── [   18437982 Mar 26 03:20]  MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.2025-03-26.7C02vHD.zip
├── [   18437982 Mar 29 03:08]  MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.curl.2025-03-29.7C02vHD.zip
└── [   18437982 Mar 29 03:14]  MSI_AMD_B450_Tomahawk_MAX_II_7C02v3_BIOS_vHD_2024-08-09.curl-no-query-params.2025-03-29.7C02vHD.zip

2 directories, 6 files

Created the BIOS flashback/refresh USB wit one GPT partition that's FAT32 format. Then used the MSI setup of the file name:

$ find /run/media/nyctdev/M-FLASH -type f -exec sh -c 'echo -n "md5: "; md5sum {}; echo -n "sha1: "; sha1sum {}; echo -n "sha256: "; sha256sum {}; echo -n "sha512: "; sha512sum {}; echo -n "blake2: "; b2sum {}' ';'

md5: cbca2b6dba76ba9d7dc0c44b61721ed1  /run/media/nyctdev/M-FLASH/MSI.ROM
sha1: 256248eac40c7c1254bcddaa682501828e3e4466  /run/media/nyctdev/M-FLASH/MSI.ROM
sha256: 70c49e19806cbe12900979bd0a2a76d8bdf167e4a2794972096766e302b1a358  /run/media/nyctdev/M-FLASH/MSI.ROM
sha512: be8902e3ff6d33936cf34b103095dbafe3ee1c89672dbb7befebc1511dcceb76a1cb5c9cbbf22a84f57ca9f98194518f73103bc52492d997026923c1a4cdf2bf  /run/media/nyctdev/M-FLASH/MSI.ROM
blake2: 8c2409fdcdf9fce33bb6cd9d573375762379ba95158b6682b7ac9bd7213be9657857245e5897506e07c7171898be3661a7fc50e912ac06852b8073eb7c93965c  /run/media/nyctdev/M-FLASH/MSI.ROM

$ cat /Projects/Downloads/BIOS/7C02vHD/7C02vHx.txt

--------------------------------------------------------------------
B450 TOMAHAWK MAX II (MS-7C02) V17.D BIOS Release
--------------------------------------------------------------------

1. This is AMI BIOS release

2. This BIOS fixes the following problem of the previous version:
-  Fixed CVE-2024-36877 security issue.
-  Implemented patch for “LogoFAIL” vulnerability.

3. 2024/08/05


[Below information is Traditional Chinese language]

A. AMI BIOS 正式發行

B. 此版本修正下列問題:
-  修正 CVE-2024-36877 安全性問題.
-  針對「LogoFAIL」漏洞導入安全性修補程式。

C. 更新日期: 公元2024年8月5號


[Below information is Simplified Chinese language]

A. AMI BIOS 正式发行

B. 此版本修正下列问题:
-  修正 CVE-2024-36877 安全性问题.
-  针对「LogoFAIL」漏洞导入安全性修补程式。

C. 更新日期: 公元2024年8月5号

Last edited by Nyctfall (2025-04-01 04:18:34)

cryptearth · 2025-03-30 17:21:48

if anyone its MSI support who might be able to help you on this one - and unless someone of them is active here I doubt you will get any useful replies
anyway ...
the first good idea was to not go for the latest for the sake of going for the latest as it's a beta and not supported even by MSI themself - going for beta builds is always something reserved for folks like overclockers or devs or such - the average user should stick to the regular builds - so going for at most the vHD is the line you should not cross unless you really need to for some reason
as for the question itself about trusting MSI any longer or try to verify the update source: every big major suffered from such an attack over the past decade or two - look at supermicro, the de-facto standard for datacenter motherboards: they got hit already back in 2018 - or look at ASUS: installing capacitors backwords leading to them blowing up and using out-of-spec defaults causing CPUs to die ... this could also be seen as a form of supply chain attack although the actual reasons and outcome was a bit different
currently my server uses components from ASRock Rack - the datacenter department of ASRock - and as ASRock is just a spin-off of ASUS it always had this bad reputation of "being the junk bin of ASUS just to melk them all and even sell the crap" it's abit weird that a spin-off of a premium brand has a higher market share in that segment than the parent company with its own brand

point is: not blindly trusting everyone is surely a good idea - but at some point you just have to accept reality:
- either just trust it and update
- don't trust it and don'T update
- get another motherboard

Nyctfall · 2025-03-30 17:28:11

Valid points. I'll also check MSI Support forums too!

I am also concerned about if the MSI official website ever suffers from MitM attack, there would be no knowing what the integrity of the files are, since they can even be signed by a bad actor now.

I hope I'm getting the same as anyone else who'd download the BIOS, maybe someone could download it too to see if they get the same hashed checksums?

Last edited by Nyctfall (2025-03-30 17:29:36)

Nyctfall · 2025-03-30 20:25:46

I made a post on the MSI AMD Motherboard Forums: <"Verifying BIOS checksum integrity for MSI AMD B450 Tomahawk 7c02vHD">

cryptearth · 2025-03-31 11:23:19

lets hope you will get any reply
from several other unrelated topics it seems many consumer OEMs often just reply with "we not support linux"

Nyctfall · 2025-04-01 04:16:43

From MSI Support Forum user "citay":

Here's my MD5 results,
ab626b16378342b141abefe96fa3fd87 *7C02vHD.zip
cbca2b6dba76ba9d7dc0c44b61721ed1 *E7C02AMS.HD0
Here's for the HE2 beta. Usually for these older boards, the latest BIOS will be a "forever beta" - they don't want to provide support for it, but it's basically as good as a stable version.
879b1be8469147c0f7e010f4dc1475b0 *7C02vHE2.zip
92d9401b0c9413d7d9bf8e1f8e24f6f4 *E7C02AMS.HE2
...

Welp, that's something at least. So if there is an issue, the MSI support will at least be able to help since the BIOS is seemingly what everyone else gets (and hopefully legit too).
Thanks all for the help! Hopefully the update goes well!

Nyctfall · 2025-04-03 16:37:21

I did the BIOS update to E7C02AMS.HD0, and it worked!
Thank you everyone for your help!

Note: I did need to copy the 7c02vHD directory to the root of the USB drive for the BIOS to update in BIOS M-Flash mode.

Last edited by Nyctfall (2025-04-03 19:15:22)

Arch Linux

#1 2025-03-30 16:53:02

[SOLVED] Verifying BIOS checksum for MSI AMD B450 Tomahawk 7c02vHD

#2 2025-03-30 17:21:48

Re: [SOLVED] Verifying BIOS checksum for MSI AMD B450 Tomahawk 7c02vHD

#3 2025-03-30 17:28:11

Re: [SOLVED] Verifying BIOS checksum for MSI AMD B450 Tomahawk 7c02vHD

#4 2025-03-30 20:25:46

Re: [SOLVED] Verifying BIOS checksum for MSI AMD B450 Tomahawk 7c02vHD

#5 2025-03-31 11:23:19

Re: [SOLVED] Verifying BIOS checksum for MSI AMD B450 Tomahawk 7c02vHD

#6 2025-04-01 04:16:43

Re: [SOLVED] Verifying BIOS checksum for MSI AMD B450 Tomahawk 7c02vHD

#7 2025-04-03 16:37:21

Re: [SOLVED] Verifying BIOS checksum for MSI AMD B450 Tomahawk 7c02vHD

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