From f459ebb667310058da9c4d65d905ea2ddcc2dd64 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: John Smith <you@example.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 2026 22:36:19 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] fix(audit-185): probe binary presence live instead of caching
 (Refs #243)
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Follow-up to the negative-cache fix: caching positives is stale the
other way — a PATH shim's finally-restore leaves the cached hit behind
and the next gate run spawns a binary that is gone (CI: cli.test.ts
gates run failed with `Executable not found in $PATH: gitleaks`).
installed() is a live PATH probe now; a probe is microseconds and gate
runs call it a handful of times. The unit test pins both directions
(miss→shim→seen→removed→miss).

TDD: CI run 38105290150 is the red witness for the stale-positive
direction; gates-seeded.test.ts 13/13 green locally after.

Refs #185
---
 packages/core/src/gates/security.ts     | 17 ++++++-----------
 packages/core/test/gates-seeded.test.ts |  4 ++++
 2 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)

diff --git a/packages/core/src/gates/security.ts b/packages/core/src/gates/security.ts
index 8de951a..a38db71 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/gates/security.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/gates/security.ts
@@ -8,21 +8,16 @@ import type { GateFinding } from "../schema/gates.ts"
 import { parseJsonc } from "../util/jsonc.ts"
 import { run } from "../util/proc.ts"
 
-const which = new Map<string, boolean>()
-
 /**
  * Is `binary` an executable on PATH? Pure lookup (no shell), so no injection.
- * Only positive answers are cached: a miss is re-probed every time, so a
- * binary installed (or shimmed onto PATH) later in the process is seen.
- * Caching a miss pinned Gate skips across PATH changes (#243: the gitleaks
- * PATH shims in these tests read as absent once any earlier gate run cached
- * the miss on a machine without the binary).
+ * Probed live on every call: caching the answer pinned Gate skips across
+ * PATH changes in both directions (#243 — a cached miss hid later shims;
+ * a cached hit outlived the shim's finally-restore and sent the gate at a
+ * binary that was already gone). A PATH probe is microseconds; gate runs
+ * call this a handful of times.
  */
 export function installed(binary: string): boolean {
-  if (which.get(binary) === true) return true
-  const found = onPath(binary)
-  if (found) which.set(binary, true)
-  return found
+  return onPath(binary)
 }
 
 function onPath(binary: string): boolean {
diff --git a/packages/core/test/gates-seeded.test.ts b/packages/core/test/gates-seeded.test.ts
index 4df0b03..351eb33 100644
--- a/packages/core/test/gates-seeded.test.ts
+++ b/packages/core/test/gates-seeded.test.ts
@@ -325,6 +325,10 @@ describe("gitleaks shape and waiver glob edges", () => {
       process.env.PATH = previous
       await rm(shimdir, { recursive: true, force: true })
     }
+    // And no stale positive survives the shim's removal: the next gate run
+    // must skip the scanner instead of spawning a binary that is gone (the
+    // cli.test.ts gates failure this exact staleness caused in CI).
+    expect(installed(missing)).toBe(false)
   })
 
   test("a rule+files glob waiver hides only what both globs match", async () => {