NTFSSecurity/.memory-bank/activeContext.md

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

Active context

Current focus

State at 2026-10-10 11:47 UTC: the maintainer integrated the release-gate stack into master (fa0701b, CI green at 11:40Z): #116 (rc7, 8a6be9f), #120 (bdb9981; it replaced #117, which GitHub closed unmerged when the branch deletion after #116 removed its base, see Decision 15), #118 (03bef2c, handoff 1, the paths), and #119 (fa0701b, handoff 2, the operating-system matrix). The remote head branches are deleted. rc7 is not tagged or published: rc6 is the latest published prerelease, 4.2.6 the stable Gallery version. rc7 contains the Phase 2 behavior changes, the path tests and fixes, and the three module fixes of the matrix (962887a, fdd7a8b). Stable 5.0.0 stays gated (Decision 21).

The maintainer asked on 2026-10-09 at 21:21 UTC to continue with the release-gate handoffs and to decide and report later. The agent's decisions are D1 to D47 in decisions-night-2026-10-09.md of the session files. Decisions 22 (Phase 2), 23 (the #34 dossier), and 24 (the matrix) are proposed: the agent confirmed Decision 22 under the delegation, and neither that nor any risk acceptance is the maintainer's.

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.
• 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.
• 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. The maintainer tags fa0701b as 5.0.0-rc7 and pushes the tag; the release job then publishes to the Gallery and GitHub after the approval of the powershell-gallery environment (deployment notes). Every release step is his.
2. Gate 3, after rc7 is on the Gallery (the agent runs it on request): Test-PublishedRelease.ps1 -Version 5.0.0-rc7, the live controller with -Version in the first lab, and Run-MatrixSequence.ps1 -Version 5.0.0-rc7 for every cell (deployment notes, "Accept a published package"). Open: keep or replace the matrix VMs (about 60 GB) and the evaluation client (it shuts down every hour), and a domain cell for Windows 11 26H1, whose client loses the secure channel to the Server 2025 domain controller.
3. He decides the 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). He also confirms or changes the proposed Decisions 22 and 24.
4. #34 stays open (Decision 23; no reply since 2026-10-06): the maintainer chooses between waiting for a test of the published candidate on the NetApp, EMC, and IBM ESS servers of the reporters (checklist: Tests/Lab/Non-Windows-File-Server-Test.md) and accepting the untested risk with a release-note caveat. No agent can accept it.
5. He decides the two LOW findings of the security review (record, Limits): the swallowed initialization errors of GetEffectiveAccess (a false "no access" instead of an error on an OS that refuses at initialization; fix: record the exceptions in authzException, with a regression test and a check of "the error stays" in the help and CHANGELOG), and 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. Do not release stable 5.0.0 or equate a percentage with gate closure.