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Inventory, disk images, and reconstruction

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This page is a build-25G83 research snapshot. Static code paths and declared capabilities do not establish execution or effective runtime policy. Original raw evidence is retained privately; public tables and measurements are linked where available.

Inventory and folder guide

Recursive coverage

Scope Regular-file paths Directories Symlinks
Working staging copy 1,212 250 3
Software Update RAMDisk 979 769 379
AppleDiagnostics 361 99 0
ARM BaseSystem 48,411 13,508 6,241
Intel BaseSystem 47,983 13,176 6,204
Intel BaseSystem Preboot 27 19 0
Intel system cryptex 6,150 1,383 99
Total regular-file paths 105,123    

Original staging contains 1,191 regular files; the 21 extra working-copy entries are Finder metadata. Both source trees have 250 directories and three links. Privileged read-only enumeration resolved the initial access gap and confirmed that Locked Files/Boot Files is empty.

The initial recursive inventories record no enumeration/hash errors. Counts include repeated assets and potentially multiple hard-link paths; they are not unique-code counts or physical storage usage. The later Stage 4D executable/cache scan was narrower: 1,020 Intel recovery files hash-verified. An ancillary recursive listing encountered protected local-user template paths; that pass is not described as a fresh complete traversal.

Per-path catalogs retain format, size, SHA-256, ownership, mode, timestamps, link target and a bounded role description. They remain in the private audit workspace pending publication review; this README does not pretend to reproduce 105,123 individual records or manual analyses. No nested DMG/PKG/ZIP/AEA filename was found in the recovered BaseSystem/cryptex inventories, which does not exclude embedded containers without those names.

Staging layout and roles

Path or family What it contains / does Interpretation boundary
Locked Files Boot-label images and text; empty Boot Files subdirectory Empty staging is not proof of update success, failure or deletion
index.sproduct Structured product/package index A package reference does not supply the package body
InstallAssistant.pkg.integrityDataV1 CNKL integrity metadata Not an executable installer; the original folder did not contain the full package
UpdateBundle/Info.plist MobileAsset identity, models, size requirements and policy hints Publisher declarations are not signatures
UpdateBundle/META-INF ZIP metadata Archive metadata is not runtime activity
UpdateBundle/AssetData/Info.plist Target/staging metadata Identifies the intended asset context
boot/BuildManifest.plist Recipes and component digests for 136 identities Not every component applies to the target or is locally present
payload.bom, payloadv2.bom, pre.bom, post.bom Expected filesystem inventories A BOM entry does not establish installation or presence
BOM .signature companions Authentication data Complete trust-chain verification remains unfinished
payload, payloadv2 Staged update data and chunk descriptions Retained data_payload and prepare_payload are 12-byte PBZX headers without blocks
payload_chunks.txt Chunk-size description Does not replace absent chunk bodies
basesystem_patches Replacement BaseSystem containers and companions .dmg filenames conceal a patch/container format
image_patches System/cryptex image patches Needs format-specific reconstruction
Restore/BootabilityBundle Restore metadata, manifests and BootabilityBrain framework Bootability coordination capability; no disk-change event established
boot/EFI, boot/Firmware, all_flash, dfu EFI tools, hardware firmware, boot-chain material and artwork Mixed executable and data formats; not all images are code

Inside the RAMDisk, bin, sbin, usr, System, private and dev provide tools, libraries and runtime structure. etc and var are aliases. mnt1 through mnt11 are staging mountpoints, not evidence that hidden disks were attached.

Disk images and reconstruction

Artifact Format / size Validation so far
x86_64SURamDisk.dmg Raw APFS, 270,532,608 bytes All 26 chunk hashes match; read-only mount and filesystem check passed
AppleDiagnostics.dmg Compressed image, 2,889,199 bytes UDIF checksum and one chunk hash match; filesystem check passed
arm64eBaseSystem.dmg patch BXDIFF50 full replacement Reconstructed 1,562,348,679 bytes; embedded SHA-1, 149 chunk hashes, UDIF and filesystem checks passed
x86_64BaseSystem.dmg patch BXDIFF50 full replacement Reconstructed 1,464,762,142 bytes; embedded SHA-1, 140 chunk hashes, UDIF and filesystem checks passed
cryptex-system-x86_64 patch RIDIFF10 full replacement Host Apple parser succeeded; mountable APFS output and filesystem check passed
Official SharedSupport.dmg Installer reference container XAR member checksum checked; reference SHA-256 recorded and rechecked

A raw APFS RAMDisk does not have a UDIF checksum to verify. That format distinction is not evidence of corruption.

The BaseSystem containers carry complete replacement bytes in PBZX streams; reconstruction did not require an older BaseSystem. Header layout, expanded size and embedded output digest were checked. Supplied hashes establish consistency with supplied metadata, not an independently trusted signature by themselves.

The RIDIFF reconstruction used the host’s Apple libParallelCompression and wrote a new analysis artifact. Independent full-image authentication of that reconstructed output was not completed. Its source patch nevertheless matches the exact official update.

Embedded images are covered by complete source-container identity. This is not misrepresented as independently reconstructing every image a second time from a separate vendor release.