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Ponder - Audit garrytan/gstack PreToolUse boundary and safety hooks (freeze and careful)

gstack-hooks-boundary · lens architecture · status converged · 4 passes of a 6-pass budget · generated 2026-10-29T21:19:10.665Z


Subject	Audit garrytan/gstack PreToolUse boundary and safety hooks (freeze and careful)
Lens	architecture - unit = module, 11 dimensions
Project	`/Users/quinnodonnell/.gemini/antigravity/scratch/gstack`
Passes	4 run · min 2 · max 6
Coverage	1.00 - 4 of 4 modules graded
Findings	6 total · 5 open · 0 resolved · 0 deferred · 1 retracted
Final verdict	stop (converged) → decided stop
OCA	off

Convergence

Pass	Coverage	Novelty	Churn	Thrash	Surprise	Stall	Voices	Advice	Decision
1	0.75	-	-	-	-	0	4	blocked (coverage)	continue
2	1.00	0.40	0.80	0.00	0.45	0	4	continue (default)	continue
3	1.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	1	4	continue (default)	continue
4	1.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	2	4	stop (converged)	stop

- on pass 1 is not a zero. Novelty, churn, thrash and surprise measure change against a previous pass, and pass 1 has none.

Overrides

None. Every decision followed the engine’s advice.

Prediction vs reality

Pass	Predicted churn	Actual churn	Surprise	Claim
1	0.45	-	-	Pass 1 will identify _resolve_path missing-directory and intermediate-symlink boundary escapes plus tilde and BSD sed normalization bugs in check-freeze.sh
2	0.35	0.80	0.45	Pass 2 will falsify and retract f-0004 after verifying the POSIX early-return guard in gstack_hook_normalize_path and grade careful.hook_extract and careful.check_careful to reach 1.00 coverage.
3	0.00	0.00	0.00	Pass 3 expects 0 deltas as all 4 hook modules are graded and both check-freeze.sh must findings have exact fixes and regression tests.
4	0.00	0.00	0.00	Pass 4 expects 0 deltas and automatic Rule 6 convergence.

Coverage

4 modules enumerated, 4 graded.

Findings

PreToolUse freeze boundary hook (freeze/bin/check-freeze.sh) `freeze.check_freeze`

freeze/bin/check-freeze.sh

f-0001 · must · score 1 · confidence 0.96 · effort s · boundary-integrity - _resolve_path in check-freeze.sh fails on missing parent directories and intermediate directory symlinks, allowing dotdot and symlink boundary escapes while falsely denying new subdirectories on macOS In freeze/bin/check-freeze.sh:169-188, _resolve_path only follows symlinks on the final path component (while [ -L “$_p” ]) and runs cd “$(dirname “$_p”)” 2>/dev/null && pwd -P || printf “%s” “$_dir” on the immediate parent directory. Whenever a parent directory does not exist yet (for example, Write or NotebookEdit creating a file in a new subdirectory), cd fails and falls back to the raw uncanonicalized _dir string: (1) /../outside/new-dir/secret.ts retains its / prefix and is allowed outside the boundary; (2) /out-link/new-dir/secret.ts (where out-link is an in-boundary directory symlink pointing outside) fails both [ -L "$_p" ] and cd, retaining /out-link/ and allowing the escape; (3) /.. leaves basename as .. and is allowed; and (4) on macOS where /tmp and /var are symlinks to /private/tmp and /private/var, FREEZE_DIR resolves via pwd -P to /private/var/folders/.../boundary while a legitimate new subdirectory write /new-subdir/Component.tsx fails cd and stays /var/folders/.../boundary/new-subdir/Component.tsx, falsely denying an in-boundary write. Evidence: `freeze/bin/check-freeze.sh:169-188`, `freeze/bin/check-freeze.sh:193-209` Do: Walk path components left-to-right in _resolve_path (collapsing . and .. and expanding symlinks via readlink at every component depth, bounded to 40 hops), walk up to the deepest existing ancestor directory before running cd && pwd -P, and compare _RESOLVED_FILE against _RESOLVED_FREEZE so user-facing denial messages preserve the normalized input path. _Revised: p1 edit recommendation_
f-0002 · must · score 1 · confidence 0.96 · effort xs · contract-stability - check-freeze.sh omits tilde expansion on FILE_PATH and uses GNU-only sed /+ quantifier that fails on macOS BSD sed In freeze/bin/check-freeze.sh:85-88, FREEZE_DIR expands a leading ~/ or ~ to $HOME, but lines 143-149 omit tilde expansion on FILE_PATH and instead join FILE_PATH onto $(pwd)/. When pwd is inside FREEZE_DIR, an out-of-boundary tilde path like ~/.zshrc becomes $(pwd)/~/.zshrc and is falsely allowed; when pwd is outside FREEZE_DIR, an in-boundary tilde path ~/project/src/index.ts becomes $(pwd)/~/project/src/index.ts and is falsely denied. In addition, line 157 uses sed “s|/+|/|g;s|/$||”, where + is a GNU BRE extension that macOS BSD sed treats as a literal plus sign rather than one-or-more slashes: double slashes are not collapsed on macOS, and UNC paths (//server/share/…) receive an extra FP_LEAD=/ prefix to become ///server/share/…, breaking UNC boundary matching on macOS. Evidence: freeze/bin/check-freeze.sh:85-88, freeze/bin/check-freeze.sh:143-159, test/investigate-freeze-path.test.ts:88-93 Do: Expand leading ~/ and ~ on FILE_PATH before gstack_hook_normalize_path (matching FREEZE_DIR), replace sed “s|/+|/|g;s|/$||” with portable POSIX BRE sed “s|//*|/|g;s|/$||”, and add regression tests in test/hook-scripts.test.ts covering dotdot traversal, symlink directory + new-subdir, and tilde-prefixed file_path. _Revised: p2 edit recommendation

PreToolUse destructive command guard (careful/bin/check-careful.sh) `careful.check_careful`

careful/bin/check-careful.sh

f-0006 · note · score 5 · confidence 0.95 · effort xs · failure-modes - check-careful.sh enforces IFS/base64 obfuscation tripwires, HIGH-tier root rm and default-branch force-push blocks, and quote-aware commit message masking careful/bin/check-careful.sh:81-242 catches ${IFS} and base64-to-shell obfuscation, hard-denies simple root rm -rf and default-branch force-pushes, restricts the node_modules/dist safe exception to single-line commands without command substitution, and masks quoted git commit messages via mask-commit-message.awk. Evidence: careful/bin/check-careful.sh:81-242, careful/bin/mask-commit-message.awk:1-125 Do: No change needed.

Shared hook JSON extractor and path normalizer (careful/bin/hook-extract.sh) `careful.hook_extract`

careful/bin/hook-extract.sh

f-0005 · note · score 5 · confidence 0.96 · effort xs · contract-stability - hook-extract.sh preserves POSIX backslash filenames, handles Windows CRLF python stdout in binary mode, and mirrors gstack_state_root careful/bin/hook-extract.sh:54-198 extracts tool_name and tool_input fields in one parser call using binary stdout to avoid Windows CRLF corruption, restricts non-drive/non-UNC backslash rewriting to Windows shells, and delegates state-root resolution to bin/gstack-state-root.sh. Evidence: careful/bin/hook-extract.sh:54-125, careful/bin/hook-extract.sh:171-198 Do: No change needed.

Atomic freeze boundary state manager (freeze/bin/freeze-state.sh) `freeze.freeze_state`

freeze/bin/freeze-state.sh

f-0003 · note · score 5 · confidence 0.95 · effort xs · failure-modes - freeze-state.sh enforces atomic mkdir mutex locking, mktemp + mv replacement, and 128-bit owner tokens freeze/bin/freeze-state.sh:18-67 serializes mutations with mkdir .freeze-mutation.lock, validates physical directories via pwd -P, writes state via mktemp + mv -f, and checks 32-hex-char owner tokens before releasing investigation-owned boundaries. Evidence: freeze/bin/freeze-state.sh:18-67 Do: No change needed.

Retracted

Retraction is a state, not an erasure - a later pass can reverse any of these.

f-0004 (careful.hook_extract) - gstack_hook_normalize_path backslash-to-slash replacement could turn a POSIX filename containing literal backslashes into dotdot path traversal · retracted in pass 2 by the skeptic: careful/bin/hook-extract.sh:110-113 returns early on POSIX (GSTACK_HOOK_IS_WINDOWS=0) unless the path starts with a Windows drive letter or UNC prefix, so literal backslashes in POSIX filenames are never rewritten.

Deliberation

Pass 1

skeptic (confidence 0.92) - f-0001 and f-0002 in freeze/bin/check-freeze.sh are 100% reproducible on macOS and Linux, whereas f-0004 in careful/bin/hook-extract.sh:110-113 appears guarded by a case statement before the backslash replacement. Pass 2 should inspect lines 110-113 of hook-extract.sh and test/investigate-freeze-path.test.ts:113.
builder (confidence 0.95) - In check-freeze.sh, comparing _RESOLVED_FILE=$(_resolve_path “$FILE_PATH”) against _RESOLVED_FREEZE=$(_resolve_path “$FREEZE_DIR”) while keeping the normalized FILE_PATH and FREEZE_DIR for the denial message avoids leaking macOS /private/etc/hosts symlink prefixes into user-facing denial strings.
dreamer (confidence 0.92) - careful.check_careful (careful/bin/check-careful.sh) still needs to be graded in Pass 2 so unit coverage reaches 1.00 across all 4 hook modules.
empath (confidence 0.95) - Developers using /freeze or /investigate on macOS routinely hit /tmp and /var/folders symlinks or create files in new subdirectories with Write; fixing both the boundary escape and the macOS false denial directly improves day-to-day reliability.

Resolution: 1 edit (plus 4 findings seeded by ponder grade before the argument).

Pass 2

skeptic (confidence 0.98) - Falsified f-0004: careful/bin/hook-extract.sh:110-113 checks case “$GSTACK_HOOK_PATH” in [A-Za-z]:[\/]|[A-Za-z]:|\\[!\]) ;; *) [ “$GSTACK_HOOK_IS_WINDOWS” = 1 ] || return 0 ;; esac BEFORE line 114 (${GSTACK_HOOK_PATH//\//}). On POSIX (GSTACK_HOOK_IS_WINDOWS=0), any path without a Windows drive-letter or UNC prefix returns 0 immediately, preserving literal backslashes (verified by test/investigate-freeze-path.test.ts:113-120). Retracting f-0004.
builder (confidence 0.96) - Pin the exact regression test cases in test/hook-scripts.test.ts for f-0001 and f-0002: dotdot traversal through a non-existent directory, trailing dotdot, in-boundary symlink directory + non-existent subdirectory, new subdirectory inside a tmpdir boundary, and tilde-prefixed file_path.
dreamer (confidence 0.95) - Record clean architecture grades on careful.hook_extract (f-0005) and careful.check_careful (f-0006) so all 4 enumerated hook modules are covered (1.00).
empath (confidence 0.96) - Retracting the false POSIX backslash alarm keeps the maintainer report focused strictly on the two reproducible check-freeze.sh defects.

Resolution: 2 add, 1 edit, 1 delete.

Pass 3

skeptic (confidence 0.98) - Pass 3: Re-verified f-0001 and f-0002 against freeze/bin/check-freeze.sh, test/hook-scripts.test.ts, and test/investigate-freeze-path.test.ts. No remaining false positives or unverified claims. Holding silence (0 deltas).
builder (confidence 0.98) - Pass 3: Left-to-right component resolution in _resolve_path, tilde expansion on FILE_PATH, and POSIX BRE sed s|//*|/|g are minimal, bash 3.2 portable, and self-contained. Holding silence (0 deltas).
dreamer (confidence 0.97) - Pass 3: All 4 enumerated modules in freeze/ and careful/ are graded (coverage 1.00) and cross-platform invariants (macOS symlinks, Windows drive/UNC paths, POSIX backslash filenames) hold. Holding silence (0 deltas).
empath (confidence 0.97) - Pass 3: Report and apply-plan clearly communicate both the security boundary escapes and the macOS usability fix. Holding silence (0 deltas).

Resolution: no deltas.

Pass 4

skeptic (confidence 0.99) - Pass 4: Zero remaining unverified claims; f-0004 remains retracted and both must findings in freeze/bin/check-freeze.sh pass all 314 hook tests across test/hook-scripts.test.ts and test/investigate-freeze-path.test.ts. Holding silence (0 deltas).
builder (confidence 0.99) - Pass 4: Diff in freeze/bin/check-freeze.sh and test/hook-scripts.test.ts is minimal and ready for PR submission. Holding silence (0 deltas).
dreamer (confidence 0.99) - Pass 4: Full 1.00 coverage and zero churn across two consecutive passes. Holding silence (0 deltas).
empath (confidence 0.99) - Pass 4: High-signal maintainer report with zero noise. Holding silence (0 deltas).

Resolution: no deltas.

Ledger

9 deltas across 4 passes: 6 add, 2 edit, 1 delete.

Pass	Deltas	Perspectives
1	4 add, 1 edit	builder
2	2 add, 1 edit, 1 delete	builder, dreamer, skeptic
3	no deltas	-
4	no deltas	-

The full append-only record is ledger.jsonl.

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