NTFSSecurity/.memory-bank/activeContext.md

status	last-verified	owner	source
current	2026-10-20	active-agent	current task evidence

Active context

Current focus

State at 2026-10-20 12:40 UTC: 5.0.0-rc8 is published and accepted. The maintainer merged #126 (the decisions of 2026-10-19) and #127 (c719197: the fix of the false "no access" of Get-NTFSEffectiveAccess, the known limit of the hard-link cmdlets in the pages and the CHANGELOG, and the label rc8) and tagged 5.0.0-rc8 at about 10:28Z. The CI run 39408140862 passed, and the Gallery has rc8 since 10:40:58Z, GitHub since 10:41:07Z. The identity check passed. The lab acceptance of the published bytes passed in one detached driver (68 minutes, 10:38 to 11:47Z): three cells 1,374/0/12, the suite in 24 runs on six machine classes, the first lab 245/0/1 per edition, every end state CLEAN (record Tests/Lab/Acceptance-2026-10-20-published-rc8.md, #128). The boundary of the new error, a computer name of 32,718 characters, holds on Server 2019, 2022, 2025, and Windows 11 26H1. Open before the stable pull request: the tests-only round for the plain gaps (until 2026-11-02), the maintainer's #34 decision on that date (no reply to his follow-up of 2026-10-19), and his check of PSGALLERY_API_KEY. The stable build is new bytes that no lab has run; the procedure accepts the last prerelease, so the stable change touches only the label, the CHANGELOG, and $publishedVersions. Any other product change needs rc9 and the same acceptance, about 70 minutes with the chain script.

State at 2026-10-10: the maintainer integrated the release-gate stack into master (#116, #120, #118, #119, #121; fa0701b, CI green; GitHub closed #117 unmerged when the branch deletion removed its base, Decision 15) and tagged rc7 (Gallery 12:30:57Z). The published rc7 passed its lab acceptance the same day (record Tests/Lab/Acceptance-2026-10-10-published-rc7.md). The agent's delegated decisions of 2026-10-09 and 10 are D1 to D47 in decisions-night-2026-10-09.md of the session files; the maintainer accepted Decisions 22 and 24 on 2026-10-19 and decides 23 on 2026-11-02.

Evidence

• rc6 Release run 37839669028, attempt 2, succeeded; GitHub prerelease with zip appeared 2026-10-09 07:01:34 UTC. The first attempt proves HTTP 409 after Gallery publication, not the earlier assumed retry chronology.
• Integration on 2026-10-10 (UTC): #116 merged 09:10, #117 closed unmerged 09:10:16 (events base_ref_deleted, closed), #120 merged 10:50, #118 11:12, #119 11:28, head branches deleted 11:34, CI on master at fa0701b green 11:40. A git merge-tree simulation of the chain was conflict-free and ended in the tree of the matrix branch.
• rc7 on 2026-10-10: tag at fa0701b about 12:20Z, CI run 38051611526 green, Gallery 12:30:57Z, GitHub 12:31:09Z. Test-PublishedRelease.ps1 (12:33Z): tag commit on master, Gallery SHA-512 matches the nupkg, 11 module files identical in nupkg and zip, manifest 5.0.0-rc7; hashes in the deployment notes, evidence in the session folder published-rc7.
• Gate 3 on the published rc7, 14:29 to 15:30 UTC (one detached driver; record Tests/Lab/Acceptance-2026-10-10-published-rc7.md, evidence gate3-rc7 with a manifest): the three matrix cells (OSFile19, 22, 25 with OSWin11E, both editions) 1,374 passed, 0 failed, 12 skipped, LIVE_RESULT_VERIFIED and CLEAN in each; the suite in 24 runs on six machine classes without a failure and with the host's skipped tests; the first lab with case 9 245 / 0 / 1 per edition, CLEAN in four domains and on both machines. Each controller run downloaded the package of the identity check (nupkg and DLL hashes equal). Same counts as the final local candidate; no checkpoint was taken.
• Handoff 1 (paths), measured at 5a5d58b (frozen Release, four configurations, CI wrappers, then AltCover): 1,310 cases per configuration, zero failures (baseline 3442194: 914 cases); coverage 3,192/3,634 sequence points (87.84%) and 1,273/1,978 branches (64.36%), against 74.21% and 50.39%. All 231 methods with 442 unvisited points are classified: 223 explained, 8 open for the maintainer. Skip eligibility was checked by row: all 578 skipped rows (137 distinct tests) are executed in two other configurations.
• Eleven defects were fixed, ten with a guard that is red before the fix and green after it (a red/green matrix over ten states of the branch: 76 rows red at the base f11ff41, none after the last fix; the leak of a native buffer has no guard). Mutation rounds at 5a5d58b: 25 of 26 detected, M25 (the check by type) an equivalent mutant. The matrix doesn't show that a test preceded its fix: each fix commit carries both. Report: Tests/Coverage/Quality-Gate-Paths-2026-10-09.md.
• Reviews: the custom security-reviewer can't start (its model is unavailable; no override). The built-in code-review agent made nine static passes of the paths work (no Blocker or Major) and four rounds on the matrix (one Major, record accuracy, resolved by the replay; Minors corrected); the built-in security-review agent found no exploitable vulnerability and two LOW items left for the maintainer (Next step 5).
• Live candidate of 2026-10-09 (09:20 to 09:51 UTC): 330 passed, 0 failed, 2 expected skips; published rc6: 326 passed, 4 expected failures, 2 skips; the 11 tested files match the ZIP. Independent probes verified the fixture removal on six machines (Tests/Lab/Acceptance-2026-10-09-quality-gate.md).
• Six checkpoints report Standard even after a successful ProductionOnly probe; policy restored, no restore performed: don't claim verified Production rollback evidence.
• Lab acceptance of the paths fixes, 2026-10-09 20:41 to 21:42 UTC: candidate 83149ee against its base f11ff41, the same 244 tests per edition (78 new): 486 passed, 0 failed, 2 expected skips against 338 passed, 148 failed (each green on the candidate); fixture removal verified. Record: Tests/Lab/Acceptance-2026-10-09-quality-gate-paths.md.
• Operating-system matrix, 2026-10-10 (record Tests/Lab/Acceptance-2026-10-10-os-matrix.md with CSV tables): the suite of the final candidate fdd7a8b passes on OSFile19/22/25, OSWin11E, OSWin11, and the host (24 runs, no failure; the baseline 83149ee fails 4 elevated and 20 basic-user tests on OSFile22 and OSFile25); the live controller passes in three cells (1,374 passed, 0 failed, 12 skipped) and in the first lab with case 9 (245 passed, 0 failed, 1 skipped per edition; fixture removed and verified). The Admin-role effective-access failures in earlier cells were stale account state, not the module: in a replay the baseline failed two of three cells and the candidate one, and one lifetime of about ten minutes fits 43 runs of 27 cells (the Windows mechanism is unknown). The controller names the case-3 account anew for each fixture (1dec389); four more cells with it passed. A dry run of Run-MatrixSequence.ps1 -Version 5.0.0-rc6 showed that the published-package path works. Labs at 07:50 UTC on 2026-10-10: no fixture or probe residue; OSWin11E shuts itself down an hour after its start.
• Handoff 5, the coverage unknowns, 2026-10-10 to 11 (report Tests/Coverage/Quality-Gate-Unknowns-2026-10-10.md; raw evidence in the session folder 816cf47d-2f80-4eba-8ac9-41702c49560b\files\qg-unknowns with a hash manifest). rc7 measured at fa0701b (four frozen configurations, AltCover): 3,198/3,649 sequence points (87.64%), 1,090/1,168 explicit branch points; 232 unvisited methods, all classified. Live suite on an instrumented copy (first lab and three cells) and unit suite on OSFile25: together +9 sequence and +4 explicit branch points (the code of fdd7a8b); no test or probe reaches the audit ownership retry or the audit read denial. 101 new It blocks; 7 of 64 parameter sets closed, 51 partly, 1 open, 4 left to the maintainer. Cultures de-DE and tr-TR: two defects, fixed. The piped AppliesTo (Decision 26, debugging insights): fixed in 93ed2c7; the independent reviews then found a carry-over of the scope between piped objects (9783d2a; rc7 had it for descriptor objects) and two false sentences of the documents about empty values (7bc7925, 2112ee3). Final commit 2112ee3, product code of 9783d2a (its help file differs from the package that the labs accepted): 1,492 cases per configuration, 3,266/3,668 points, 183 unvisited methods, all classified. The labs accepted the package (ap7, ap8): first lab 245/0/1 per edition; the 22 files on OSFile19/22/25 and OSWin11 1,189/0 in 16 configurations; the three cells 229/0/2 per edition; all end states clean at 13:45Z. The first start of the cells did nothing: a powershell.exe that PowerShell 7 starts inherits its PSModulePath (lab README). Server Core, ARM64, a localized system, and non-Windows servers are out of scope (Decision 25).
• rc8, 2026-10-20: fix (b) test-first on ai/fix-effective-access-init-errors. A -ServerName of 40,000 characters gave Synchronize and no error before and gives an error now; two tests were red and are green in four configurations, and the suite has 1,494 cases per configuration, 0 failed. The independent review (code-review) found one Minor, the warning "based on this computer" before the error (fixed, with tests), and three Nits. The acceptance evidence is rc8-published in the session folder 816cf47d-2f80-4eba-8ac9-41702c49560b\files\qg-unknowns (430 files, with a manifest); the published hashes are in the deployment notes.
• Raw evidence is outside git: the session folder 4b12e2f4-d4c7-4a5d-883a-ddb7421c4848\files (qg-paths, the matrix runs, the night log) and 26f151b6-e46f-49bd-9398-b27e20603949\files\quality-gate-3442194-20261009.

Next step

1. Gate 3 is done for the published rc7 and rc8 (the records). The stable build is accepted through rc8 (Decision 21, "Closing the gate"). Open: keep or replace the matrix VMs (about 60 GB, saved between runs) and the evaluation client (it shuts down every hour; OSWin11E is off), and a domain cell for Windows 11 26H1, whose client loses the secure channel to the Server 2025 domain controller. Chain-Published.ps1 in the session files runs the whole sequence (not in the kit; deployment notes).
2. The stable pull request: no Prerelease, ## [5.0.0] - <date> with an empty [Unreleased] and the links, and 5.0.0-rc8 in $publishedVersions (the list ends at rc7 now). The maintainer checks the expiry of PSGALLERY_API_KEY first, merges, and tags. Every release step is his.
3. He decides the other open items of the paths report: FileSecurity conversions, RemoveAll account filters, lazy path overloads, abandoned PrivilegeEnabler, dot patterns of Get-ChildItem2 -Filter, the 17 owner-restore handlers without the later-command check, unused classes (Decisions 21/22). Decisions 22 and 24 are accepted (2026-10-19).
4. #34 waits for a tester until 2026-11-02 (Decision 23, option 3; the follow-up went up on 2026-10-19, no reply yet; checklist: Tests/Lab/Non-Windows-File-Server-Test.md). On that date the maintainer chooses between waiting longer and accepting the untested risk with a release-note caveat. No agent can accept it.
5. Of the two LOW findings of the security review (record, Limits), the swallowed initialization errors of GetEffectiveAccess are fixed in rc8 (25fe775, #127): an error instead of a false "no access", and the warning only with a result. He still decides the other: the ACL of the stage folders under C:\ in the lab kit (they inherit Authenticated Users: Modify; protecting them is a design change of the controller and needs a new acceptance). The help could also say that a local standard user who asks about a domain account still gets "Access is denied".
6. Handoff 5 is done and merged (Evidence). Decided on 2026-10-19 (Decision 21): the hard-link names under another root stay a known limit; the pages and the CHANGELOG say so since rc8. The plain test items (68 budget mentions in the 57 sets that are not closed) are closed in a tests-only round until 2026-11-02: four implementers, one per ParameterSets.* test file, work in worktrees from master; their commits go into one branch with the report and the ParameterSets table updated, and what is left is listed. A defect that a test finds needs his decision and rc9. Still his: the silent default scope for a piped AppliesTo that PowerShell cannot convert (a design change), the 8 getters of pipeline parameters, and the audit paths.
7. Do not release stable 5.0.0 or equate a percentage with gate closure.