Please do not open a public GitHub issue for security vulnerabilities.

Report privately via one of these channels, in order of preference:

1. GitHub Security Advisories (preferred): https://github.com/TheAbider/RackStack/security/advisories/new This notifies the maintainer directly and keeps the discussion private until a fix ships.
2. Email the maintainer via the address listed on the GitHub profile at https://github.com/TheAbider.

Please include:

• Description of the vulnerability and its real-world impact (what an attacker can do with it)
• Affected version(s) — Get-RackStackVersion output is fine
• Steps to reproduce or a minimal proof-of-concept
• Your preferred credit name (or a request to remain anonymous)

Severity is classified Tier 1 / Tier 2 / Tier 3 by blast radius. Tier 1 = silent privilege escalation, credential leak, or data-destruction without operator consent — these are patched as quickly as feasible. Tier 2/3 follow the regular release cadence.

This is a personal open-source project. We can't offer a bug bounty; credit in the GitHub Security Advisory and Changelog is the only acknowledgement we can provide.

Only the latest released version receives security updates. RackStack ships a single-track release model — fixes land on master and publish as the next patch (x.y.Z) release.

Check the latest at https://github.com/TheAbider/RackStack/releases/latest or via Test-RackStackUpdate from the PowerShell Gallery module.

In scope:

• RackStack.exe binary distributed via GitHub Releases
• The PowerShell Gallery wrapper module (RackStack.psd1 / RackStack.psm1)
• The monolithic RackStack v{version}.ps1 and the modular loader + Modules/
• Install-RackStack.ps1 bootstrap installer
• Any code path that runs with the Administrator privileges the tool requires

Issues of particular concern:

• Command / argument injection via operator input or rackstack.config.json fields
• Credential exposure in transcripts, logs, exports, or error messages
• Privilege escalation beyond the intended Administrator scope (or across a remote-PowerShell trust boundary)
• Path traversal, symlink/junction attacks, TOCTOU races in destructive ops
• Secrets leaking into git history, configuration exports, or HTML reports

Out of scope:

• Vulnerabilities in Windows itself or third-party modules (Pester, PSScriptAnalyzer, ps2exe) — please report those upstream
• Operator misconfiguration where the documented default is safe
• Findings that require an attacker who is already Administrator on the same machine (RackStack runs as Administrator by design)

Every release publishes a release-hashes.txt containing SHA-256 hashes for the EXE, the monolithic .ps1, and rackstack.config.example.json. Verify before running:

(Get-FileHash RackStack.exe -Algorithm SHA256).Hash.ToLower()

Every release artifact is also signed with Sigstore cosign (keyless) and carries SLSA Level 3 build provenance. The matching .sig and .pem files are attached to each release. Verify the EXE with:

cosign verify-blob `
  --certificate RackStack.exe.pem `
  --signature RackStack.exe.sig `
  --certificate-identity-regexp "^https://github.com/TheAbider/RackStack/.github/workflows/ci.yml@refs/heads/master$" `
  --certificate-oidc-issuer https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com `
  RackStack.exe

And verify build provenance with:

gh attestation verify RackStack.exe --owner TheAbider

The EXE is not Authenticode-signed, so Windows SmartScreen may show an "Unknown publisher" prompt on first run until the project builds enough download reputation. The SHA-256 hash, cosign signature, and SLSA provenance are the integrity guarantees in the meantime.

Being unsigned, packed by ps2exe, and capable of managing Defender exclusions makes RackStack.exe score badly with machine-learning and heuristic antivirus engines. Detections are reported periodically and are false positives; they are disputed with vendors as they come in.

Please do not report an antivirus detection through the vulnerability channel above. Verify the binary first — the hash, cosign signature, and build provenance settle the question independently of any AV verdict — and then open a normal issue. Antivirus Detections walks through the verification steps, how to distinguish a false positive from a genuinely tampered file, and how to avoid the problem entirely by running the .ps1.

A detection is only a security concern if the hash does not match release-hashes.txt, or if cosign verify-blob or gh attestation verify fails. That would indicate a file that did not come from this project's CI, and is worth reporting privately via the channels at the top of this document.

The rackstack.config.json file (or the legacy defaults.json it supersedes) may contain sensitive data (Cloudflare Access client secrets, KMS host keys, AD service-account hints). Company override files (<company>.rackstack.config.json, legacy <company>.defaults.json) carry the same sensitivity. All of them are gitignored by default. rackstack.config.example.json contains only placeholder values; that is the file that ships in releases. Never commit a populated config file to a public repository.

Reporters of accepted vulnerabilities will be credited here once advisories are published, unless they request anonymity.