NTFSSecurity/.memory-bank/progress.md

status	last-verified	owner	source
current	2026-10-10	active-agent	repository and validation evidence

Progress

Current status

5.0.0-rc7 is published on the Gallery and GitHub (2026-10-10, tag at fa0701b); rc6 is the one before it. On 2026-10-10 the maintainer merged the whole stack into master (fa0701b, CI green): #116 (rc7), #120 (it replaced #117, which GitHub closed unmerged when the branch deletion after #116 removed its base), #118 (the quality-gate paths), and #119 (the operating-system matrix with three module fixes, Decision 24 proposed). The published rc7 still needs its lab acceptance (gate 3). Stable Gallery version: 4.2.6. After 5.0.0, archive in favor of WindowsAccessControl (Decision 18).

Recent milestones

• 2026-10-02 to 2026-10-06: documentation/help aligned with source, CI and wiki moved to GitHub Actions, versioning/release automation established, and prereleases rc1 to rc4 published. Earlier detail is in git, CHANGELOG.md, Docs/Version-History.md, and Decisions 1 to 19.
• 2026-10-07: lab comparison of rc2/rc4 reproduced #34 over SMB and proved changed-section writes preserve the owner. Remote effective-access fallback returned no result; fixed test-first for rc5 (Decision 20).
• 2026-10-08: #114 merged (fcb370e), rc5 published and live-tested. Decision 21 established the quality gate. Corrected four-run coverage: rc5 58.1% sequence points/38.0% branches, not the initial one-run result.
• 2026-10-08: rc6 Phase 2 added basic-user CI, parameter-set/error tests, expanded domain/SMB cases, and fixes for privilege cleanup, path resolution, ownership retries, item conflicts, output equality, and inherited flags. Suite: 677; coverage 68.14% sequence/44.32% branches. Lab acceptance of 7b0781f passed; two independent review passes.
• 2026-10-08: rc7 implemented proposed Decision 22, including breaking link binding/error changes, SimpleAccess traversal, cross-volume folder preservation, and named effective-access warnings. Suite: 712, no failures or test skipped everywhere. One review: no Blocker/Major. Lab candidate dc6e9f5: 326 passed, 2 skipped, cleanup verified.
• 2026-10-08: #115 merged (b51d970) and tagged rc6. Release run 37839669028 failed with HTTP 409 after Gallery publication. The log does not establish the previously assumed initial timeout/retry cause. Published rc6 live tests differed only in rc7's warning expectation.
• 2026-10-09: release attempt 2 succeeded; rc6 GitHub prerelease and zip appeared at 07:01:34 UTC. #116 passed CI on d25647d.
• 2026-10-09: autonomous follow-up on ai/quality-gate-coverage (#117, then #120), through 3442194: 202 cases above rc7 (deletion/owner failures, all 13 scopes, inheritance transitions, enumeration, forced replacement, descriptor failures, offline CI recovery); fixed rooted result paths and the first-hidden-item omission; publication recovery verifies the exact SHA-512 identity, not merely the version. Suite: 914 per configuration, zero failures; 2,641/3,559 sequence points (74.21%), 974/1,933 branches (50.39%). Live comparison, 09:20 to 09:51 UTC: candidate 330 passed, 0 failed, 2 expected skips; published rc6 only its four expected failures (7594e0c).
• 2026-10-09: handoff 1 (#118): suite 914 to 1,310 per configuration, zero failures; 3,192/3,634 sequence points (87.84%), 1,273/1,978 branches; all 231 unvisited methods classified (223 explained, 8 open). Eleven defects fixed, ten with a guard that is red before the fix and green after it (76 rows red at the base), among them a later command's exception that cmdlets swallowed (a throw made Remove-Item2 remove the next item) and a privilege left enabled. Lab acceptance, 83149ee against f11ff41: 486 passed, 0 failed, 2 expected skips against 338 passed, 148 failed. Report in Tests/Coverage; record Tests/Lab/Acceptance-2026-10-09-quality-gate-paths.md.
• 2026-10-09 to 10: handoffs 2 to 4 under the maintainer's delegation (decisions D1 to D47 in the night log of the session files). The matrix lab NtfsSecurityOsMatrixLab (Server 2019, 2022, 2025, a Windows 11 Enterprise 22H2 client, Windows 11 26H1 suite only) found three module defects, fixed in 962887a and fdd7a8b: audit inheritance by descriptor, Get-NTFSEffectiveAccess -ServerName '', and the same cmdlet for a non-administrator on a domain member. The final candidate passes the module's suite on every machine (24 runs), the live controller in three cells (1,374 passed, 0 failed, 12 skipped), and the first lab with case 9 (245 passed, 0 failed, 1 skipped per edition). The Server 2022 effective-access failures were stale account state, not the module (a replay; the Windows mechanism is unknown); the controller names the case-3 account anew (1dec389). Built-in reviews: Minors corrected, one Major resolved by the replay, no Blocker; the built-in security review found no exploitable vulnerability and two LOW items left for the maintainer. Record: Tests/Lab/Acceptance-2026-10-10-os-matrix.md.
• 2026-10-10: the maintainer integrated the stack. His branch deletion after the merge of #116 (8a6be9f, 09:10:12Z) removed the base branch of #117, and GitHub closed #117 unmerged three seconds later instead of retargeting it (cli/cli#14223 shows the same events); the earlier guidance that relied on a retarget was wrong. Nothing was lost: #120 (bdb9981, 10:50Z) replaced #117, then #118 (03bef2c, 11:12Z) and #119 (fa0701b, 11:28Z) merged after their retargeting; CI on master passed at 11:40Z. Decision 15 has the rule.
• 2026-10-10: rc7 published. The maintainer tagged fa0701b at about 12:20Z; the CI run of the tag passed and the Release job published without an approval step (Gallery 12:30:57Z, GitHub 12:31:09Z). The identity check (Test-PublishedRelease.ps1, 12:33Z) passed: Gallery SHA-512, nupkg and zip identical, manifest 5.0.0-rc7. Hashes: deployment notes.

Stable capabilities

• 36 cmdlets: access, audit, inheritance, owners/descriptors, privileges, long-path items, links, hash, and disk space.
• Windows PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell 7; RIPEMD160 and MACTripleDES are available only in Desktop. Both editions run elevated/basic-user in CI.
• Pester fixtures use Tests/TestHelpers.psm1 TEMP sandboxes. Live tests are excluded from CI and run only on approved lab client/server targets.

Open work

1. Decision 21 gate: test the published rc7 (identity verified; the first lab and every matrix cell remain) and review Decision 22. Do not release 5.0.0 until the remaining-path and OS-matrix gates close. Release steps: Docs/Contributing/05-Releasing.md; remove the prerelease label, date [5.0.0], add the last prerelease to $publishedVersions (never the version of the manifest), tag through CI.
2. Issues: #110's seven items were addressed by rc6, but #115 deliberately used no closing keyword. #34 stays open for non-Windows owner feedback or maintainer acceptance. #16, #21, #45, #89 await reporters. #68 tracks ShouldProcess for security cmdlets; enhancements #22/#49/#68/#77/#87 are not planned for 5.0.0. Labels follow Decision 17.
3. Deferred reviews (not silently accepted): rc3 extra DACL read/SDDL snapshots/duplicate SACL check; rc4 findings listed in #113, including library-only RemoveAll account filters; rc5 unchecked Authz errors and lab-controller hardening; rc6 failed privilege-disable retry (not reproduced); rc7 audit missing-path error IDs declined in Decision 22.
4. Architecture/cmdlet design: Decision 22 remains proposed; two link changes are breaking. Keep unused classes/helper overloads until a maintainer decision; do not remove them to improve coverage percentages.
5. ARM64 workstation: PowerShell 7.6.1 crashed under x64 emulation without module frames; native-x64 CI did not reproduce it.
6. Optional maintainer cleanup: obsolete AppVeyor/Read the Docs access, wiki editing restrictions, test/transfer, and old lab checkpoints when no longer needed. No remote changes or snapshot restores here.
7. Remaining-path inventory at the final frozen commit of Handoff 1: 442 unvisited sequence points in 231 methods, all classified (Tests/Coverage): 223 explained from source with evidence, 8 open (FileSecurity conversions, RemoveAll account filters). Other open decisions: lazy path overloads, abandoned PrivilegeEnabler, dot patterns of Get-ChildItem2 -Filter, 17 owner-restore handlers that do not pass on what a later command raises (a rare combination), unused classes. An audit write's ownership retry cannot run on a local volume and is covered only by the lab. A conditional ACE display remains a .NET representation limit, not evidence of unconditional permissions.
8. Publication recovery (95b827e, merged in #120): 14 offline tests and exact artifact SHA-512 verification; the original upload errors remain errors for missing, different, or unverifiable outcomes. The agent published nothing, so the recovery has never run against the Gallery.
9. Operating-system matrix (Decision 24, proposed): the lab and the cells exist and the candidate passes them; the published rc7 still needs its acceptance in every cell. #34 has no new reply since 2026-10-06.
10. Lab rollback evidence: new checkpoints report Standard even after a successful temporary ProductionOnly probe; original VM policy restored, no checkpoint restored. Don't represent them as verified Production snapshots.