Confidence Scoring

Every openremap identify result and every openremap scan line includes a confidence assessment — a measure of how reliably the system detected and identified the ECU binary, based on detection quality, extracted identity fields, filename heuristics, and map-structure analysis.

What confidence measures: The score reflects identification quality — how many expected identity fields were successfully extracted and how rigorous the detection cascade was. It does not measure whether the binary content has been modified. A tuned file with all ident blocks intact will score just as highly as an unmodified one.

Tiers

Example output

HIGH — Bosch EDC17, all identifiers present

  ── Confidence ─────────────────────────────────────
  Tier   HIGH
  Score  75
  Signal  +15  STRONG detection (6-phase cascade)
  Signal  +30  canonical SW version (1037-prefixed, Bosch)
  Signal  +20  hardware number present (0261209352)
  Signal  +10  ECU variant identified (EDC17C66)

HIGH — Delphi Multec S, all identifiers present

  ── Confidence ─────────────────────────────────────
  Tier   HIGH
  Score  65
  Signal  +15  STRONG detection (4-phase cascade)
  Signal  +30  canonical SW version (12345678, Delphi 8-digit GM-style)
  Signal  +20  hardware number present (09391237)

SUSPICIOUS — stop and check

  ── Confidence ─────────────────────────────────────
  Tier   SUSPICIOUS
  Score  -20
  Signal   +5  WEAK detection (minimal checks)
  Signal  -15  SW ident absent — no match key produced
  Signal  -25  tuning/modification keywords in filename
  ⚠  IDENT BLOCK MISSING
  ⚠  TUNING KEYWORDS IN FILENAME

Signals

Each signal line shows what contributed to the tier. A + prefix raised confidence; a - prefix lowered it.

Detection quality baseline

The rigour of the extractor's can_handle() method sets a baseline score before any identity fields are examined.

Software version

Other identity fields

Filename signals

These are the only signals that relate to file originality rather than identification quality. They flag filenames that suggest the binary may have been modified or provide no identifying context.

Warnings

Warnings flag specific concerns, independent of the tier score:

How the score is calculated

Each signal carries a positive or negative delta. The deltas are summed into a raw numeric score, which is then mapped to a tier:

The raw score is available in JSON output (openremap identify --json) under confidence.score, alongside the tier string and the full signals array.

Family field profiles

Each ECU family declares a field profile — the set of identity fields that the ECU architecturally stores in its binary. Fields not in the profile are never penalized when absent.

For example, the IAW 1AP family only stores a calibration fingerprint. It does not contain a discrete software version or hardware number in the binary. Under the old scoring system this absence would have incurred penalties, dragging the tier down unfairly. With field profiles, the absence of SW and HW for IAW 1AP scores 0 instead of a penalty, allowing these families to reach their natural tier based on the fields they do provide.

Families like Bosch EDC17 or ME7 declare SW, HW, variant, and calibration in their profile — so all four are expected and scored accordingly. A family like EMS2000 that only stores a variant and calibration will not be penalized for missing SW or HW.

Detection quality

The extractor's can_handle() method varies in rigour across families. A 6-phase detection cascade that checks magic bytes, block boundaries, address maps, and internal checksums provides much stronger evidence of a correct match than a 2-phase heuristic that only checks file size and a single byte pattern.

The detection quality baseline reflects this difference:

• STRONG (+15): Extractors like Multec S and IAW 1AV run 4+ independent checks with unique byte signatures. A match is very likely correct.
• MODERATE (+10): Extractors like ME7.x and EDC15 use 2–3 checks — solid but not exhaustive.
• WEAK (+5): Extractors like M3.x and PPD rely on minimal or broad heuristics. A match is plausible but less certain.

Manufacturer-aware scoring

The confidence system is manufacturer-aware — each manufacturer has its own canonical software version pattern, and each ECU family declares its own field profile. This ensures that all manufacturers can reach HIGH tier when their binaries contain the expected identifiers.

Canonical SW version formats by manufacturer

Any SW version that matches its manufacturer's canonical format earns +30. A SW version that is present but does not match the expected format earns +15. This replaces the previous approach where only Bosch 1037-prefixed versions received the full canonical bonus and all other manufacturers were capped at the non-canonical score.

Using confidence in practice

# Full per-signal breakdown for a single file
openremap identify ecu.bin

# Confidence as JSON — score, tier, signals array, warnings
openremap identify ecu.bin --json

# Triage an entire folder — confidence tag on every line
openremap scan ./my_bins/

# Export confidence scores and warnings for every file to CSV
openremap scan ./my_bins/ --report report.csv

A SUSPICIOUS result is not a verdict — it is a prompt to look closer. Run openremap identify on any flagged file for the full signal breakdown before deciding whether to use it.

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