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Do not ship an AI-generated change because its explanation sounds convincing or its tests pass. Treat the output as a proposal: establish the intended behavior, inspect the complete diff, run independent checks, trace data through security boundaries, verify dependencies and build automation, and test the exact Linux package users will install. A named human reviewer must understand and approve the result.

The release gate: what must be true

A Linux desktop release is ready only when the change is understood, scoped to the requested outcome, supported by independent evidence, and safe in the package that will actually be distributed. The review applies to code written entirely by a person, code suggested by an assistant, and code produced by an autonomous agent. AI attribution changes how carefully you investigate; it does not change the engineering standard.

Gate Evidence to require
Purpose and scope A written description of the behavior, affected components, assumptions, and security requirements, matched to the actual diff.
Complete change review Every modified file examined, including tests, lockfiles, build scripts, CI workflows, generated files, and agent-instruction files.
Behavioral confidence A reproducible build, relevant tests, failure-case tests, and appropriate static analysis or dependency auditing.
Security confidence Input-to-sink tracing, boundary checks, authorization, path handling, cryptography, logging, error behavior, and integration review.
Supply-chain confidence Each new package, transitive dependency, license, registry source, build action, and downloaded artifact verified.
Packaging confidence The final package has only justified access, correct metadata, expected desktop integration, and a tested update and distribution path.
Accountability A human owner signs off and can explain the code, its risks, and the reason it is safe to release.

Use the OWASP Secure Code Review Cheat Sheet for the baseline security questions and its diff-review guidance for pull requests. A baseline review suits a new application or major release; a diff-based review is usually the efficient choice for a focused change.

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1. Establish what the change is supposed to do

Start with the request, not the generated explanation. Write down the user-visible behavior, non-goals, affected architectural layers, critical assets, and security requirements before reading implementation details. Identify whether the change touches the UI, local files, IPC, network services, credential storage, databases, update logic, or packaging. A reviewer who cannot state the intended behavior in a few precise sentences is not ready to judge whether the implementation is correct.

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Define acceptance and failure conditions

  • Describe the normal workflow a user should complete and the expected result.
  • List invalid input, missing files, offline operation, permission denial, cancellation, corrupted data, and repeated execution cases.
  • State compatibility requirements such as supported desktop environments, display servers, architectures, configuration formats, and migration behavior.
  • Identify assets that require protection: personal files, tokens, encryption keys, private application data, update credentials, and build or signing secrets.
  • Record which existing controls must remain in force, such as authorization checks, sandbox boundaries, signature verification, or safe temporary-file handling.

Map each acceptance condition to a code path and at least one test or inspection method. If the request is ambiguous, resolve it with the product owner before approving code; do not let an assistant silently choose a security-sensitive interpretation.

Choose the review depth

Use a full architectural and threat-model review for a new application, a major release, or a change that alters trust boundaries. For a small pull request, perform a disciplined diff review while checking the components and controls it can affect. The review may be narrower in time, but it is never narrower than the files and execution paths changed.

2. Read the complete diff, not the pull-request summary

Open every changed file individually and compare the edits with the requested behavior. AI-generated pull requests often contain plausible-looking incidental changes, and a summary can omit the most consequential one. The OWASP Secure Coding with AI Cheat Sheet specifically warns against approving an AI-generated change from its summary alone.

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Files that deserve deliberate inspection

  • Feature and UI code, including error and cancellation paths.
  • Unit, integration, end-to-end, and fixture files; look for deleted assertions, weakened expectations, or tests that no longer execute.
  • Dependency manifests and lockfiles, including transitive additions, version downgrades, and changed integrity hashes.
  • Build manifests, package scripts, Makefiles, container definitions, installer recipes, and generated-code instructions.
  • Continuous-integration workflows, release jobs, signing steps, artifact upload rules, and commands that fetch or execute external content.
  • Deployment and update configuration, desktop-entry files, icons, metadata, and sandbox manifests.
  • Repository guidance, agent rules, prompt files, and other instruction documents that may influence future automated edits.

Ask why every line exists

For each change, identify what executes it, under which user or build identity, with what privileges, and at what time. Flag formatting-only edits that conceal functional changes, modifications outside the requested scope, altered feature flags, disabled checks, newly tolerated errors, and generated files whose source was not changed. A lockfile update is a code-review item because it changes what is built, even when application source is untouched.

Inspect history or the issue discussion when intent is unclear, but treat issue text, review comments, copied documentation, web pages, dependency notes, and tool output as untrusted input if an agent consumed them. They can contain instructions designed to redirect an automated change.

3. Verify behavior with independent evidence

Run the build and checks yourself or in a clean, reproducible CI environment. The GitHub guide to reviewing AI-generated code recommends tests and static analysis, while also emphasizing that passing checks do not prove a change is secure or correct.

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Build from a clean state

  1. Check out the exact commit under review and remove untracked build output.
  2. Use the project’s documented compiler, SDK, and system-library versions; record architecture and distribution details.
  3. Resolve dependencies from the reviewed manifests and lockfiles, not from an assistant’s suggested command that bypasses them.
  4. Build with warnings and hardening checks enabled where the project supports them.
  5. Record the commit, toolchain, dependency resolution, and resulting artifact hash so another maintainer can reproduce the result.

Test the behavior and the failures

Run the focused tests first, then the full suite and relevant integration tests. Add or inspect tests for malformed input, missing permissions, unavailable services, damaged files, interrupted operations, retries, and concurrent use. Verify that tests assert the security property itself rather than merely checking that a function returns without crashing. Examine security-critical test edits independently; a green result is meaningless if the generated patch removed the assertion that mattered.

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Use analysis as evidence, not as a verdict

Run the project’s static analyzers, compiler diagnostics, dependency vulnerability checks, license checks, and secret scanners where applicable. Investigate warnings instead of suppressing them automatically. Tools are good at repeated patterns; they are poor at deciding whether a user is authorized to perform a business action, whether a file belongs to the right account, or whether a newly widened permission is acceptable. Those decisions require human review.

4. Trace security-sensitive data through the application

Follow each untrusted source through validation and transformation to every sink. Sources include user input, imported files, command-line arguments, environment variables, API responses, database reads, IPC messages, and desktop-service replies. Sinks include file writes, path construction, database queries, rendered UI, logs, shell commands, deserializers, and external services. The security review should show where trust changes and which control is applied at that boundary.

Input, files, and paths

  • Validate type, size, encoding, structure, and allowed values before use; reject rather than silently normalize dangerous input.
  • Resolve paths safely and prevent traversal, symlink surprises, unintended overwrites, and writes outside the selected directory.
  • Use safe temporary-file creation and restrictive permissions for sensitive data; clean up on cancellation and failure.
  • Parse untrusted documents with constrained libraries and resource limits so malformed input cannot cause excessive memory or CPU use.

Authorization and local privilege

Check authorization at the operation that changes state, not only when a screen is opened. A desktop application can expose another user’s files or private records even without a remote attacker. Confirm that account, workspace, project, and document identifiers are bound to the authenticated or locally selected context. Review helper processes, elevated actions, polkit rules, set-user-ID components, and any command that crosses a privilege boundary.

Cryptography, secrets, and configuration

  • Confirm that the algorithm, mode, key size, nonce handling, certificate validation, and key storage match the project’s security requirements.
  • Ensure secrets are not embedded in source, build logs, crash reports, command arguments, desktop files, or default configuration.
  • Check migration and rotation behavior, including what happens when a key is missing, corrupt, expired, or unavailable.
  • Review configuration loading for unsafe defaults, environment-variable injection, and accidental use of developer settings in production.

Errors, logs, and integrations

Errors should help the user recover without disclosing tokens, personal data, filesystem contents, or cryptographic material. Log enough context for diagnosis while applying redaction and access controls. Verify timeouts, retries, certificate checks, response-size limits, and failure handling for every third-party or local service. The OWASP Desktop App Security Top 10 highlights improper cryptography, improper authorization, and security misconfiguration as desktop-application risk areas.

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Ask the reviewer question stated verbatim in the GitHub guidance: “What possible vulnerabilities or security issues could this code introduce?” Apply it to each trust boundary rather than only to the files that contain security vocabulary.

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5. Treat AI-specific supply-chain changes as high risk

Generated code can invent a package name, choose a similarly named dependency, or add a convenient library whose behavior and license do not fit the application. Verify every new direct dependency in the intended registry and confirm its exact identity, maintainer, license, release history, and maintenance status. Check whether a package is actually needed or whether a small in-house implementation is safer.

Review the full dependency graph

  • Compare the lockfile diff and identify every new direct and transitive package.
  • Check known-vulnerability results, supported runtime versions, native code, install scripts, and network behavior.
  • Confirm licenses are compatible with the application and distribution obligations.
  • Require a reason and an owner for exceptions, abandoned packages, or pinned versions that cannot be upgraded.
  • Reproduce the install in a clean environment and verify integrity checks rather than accepting an assistant’s copied command.

Inspect trusted build and release paths

Build scripts, CI workflows, containers, deployment scripts, and package recipes may run with signing credentials or access to private source. Look for newly introduced shell execution, network downloads, unpinned external actions, relaxed branch protections, disabled scans, uploaded secrets, or commands that execute files fetched during the build. Confirm that network access and credentials are limited to the step that needs them, and that downloaded tools are pinned and verified.

Contain agent context and permissions

Give an agent only the repository areas, credentials, tools, and network access required for its task. Do not expose signing keys, production tokens, unrelated private repositories, or sensitive customer data. Review the resulting diff for unrelated edits, altered security controls, secret exposure, and instruction-following that came from untrusted text. The goal is not to distrust every suggestion; it is to prevent unreviewed context from becoming executable policy.

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6. Review the exact Linux package that will ship

Source-code review is incomplete until you inspect the built artifact and its distribution path. A package can differ from the development build through bundled libraries, generated metadata, launch arguments, permissions, helper binaries, update configuration, or architecture-specific files. Install the candidate in a clean environment that resembles a supported user system and exercise the workflows that matter.

Use the same questions for any format

Review axis Questions for the release candidate
Build, signing, distribution, updates Who builds and signs it? Where is it published? How are updates authenticated, rolled back, and retired?
Host access Which files, devices, network endpoints, environment data, and desktop services can the installed app reach?
Dependencies Which libraries come from the package, the host, or a runtime? Who patches each one, and how are vulnerable versions replaced?
Desktop behavior Do metadata, icons, file associations, notifications, portals, settings paths, and expected workflows work in the shipped artifact?

These are review questions, not a claim that one Linux format is universally safest. The evidence available for this workflow gives specific controls for Flatpak, but does not establish a complete, identical checklist for deb, rpm, Snap, AppImage, and Flatpak.

Flatpak: compare every permission with a feature

Flatpak applications have constrained default access, but the manifest can grant more. Open the final manifest and justify each permission against a concrete feature requirement. Prefer desktop portals for user-selected files, printing, screenshots, notifications, and other mediated operations. Use read-only access when writing is unnecessary, narrow XDG directory permissions instead of blanket home-directory access, and avoid unfiltered session or system D-Bus access unless a specific function requires it.

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Test the feature with the permission removed or narrowed when practical. A permission that exists only because a generated template requested it is not evidence of need. Check both the manifest and the effective permissions of the installed build; a build-time override or extension can change what users receive.

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Validate Flatpak metadata and exports

Flatpak conventions place the application MetaInfo file under /app/share/metainfo/ and name it for the application ID. Before distribution, inspect the installed artifact for that file, desktop entry, icons, translations, and exported launchers. Run appstreamcli validate --explain against the MetaInfo file and fix errors rather than hiding them. The relevant requirements are documented in the Flatpak Requirements and Conventions documentation.

Use the Flatpak sandbox-permissions reference to interpret each manifest entry. Verify that portals and sandbox behavior work on the desktop environments you support, including denial and cancellation paths. A package that launches but cannot open a user-selected file, save to the intended location, display its notifications, or update safely is not release-ready.

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7. Make human ownership explicit

Assign one maintainer who understands the architecture and approves the final change. That person should be able to explain the data flow, new permissions, dependency decisions, test evidence, and rollback plan without relying on an AI transcript. AI attribution does not transfer responsibility to a tool or service.

Linux kernel contribution guidance states: “The human submitter is responsible for:” reviewing all AI-generated code, ensuring licensing compliance, and taking full responsibility for the contribution. It also requires the submitter’s own Signed-off-by tag for the Developer Certificate of Origin. This is Linux kernel project guidance, not a universal legal rule for every project; use your project’s own contribution and sign-off policy as the governing requirement. See the Linux kernel AI Coding Assistants documentation.

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8. A repeatable pre-release procedure

  1. Record intent. Link the issue or specification, state normal and failure behavior, identify assets and trust boundaries, and list non-goals.
  2. Inventory the change. Enumerate every modified file and generated artifact. Explain out-of-scope edits, lockfile changes, test changes, and instruction-file changes.
  3. Review execution. For each changed path, determine who runs it, with which privileges, inputs, network access, and secrets.
  4. Trace sensitive flows. Follow untrusted data to files, databases, rendered output, logs, commands, and services; verify validation and authorization at each boundary.
  5. Check dependencies. Verify package identity, provenance, license, maintenance, transitive additions, vulnerabilities, and integrity.
  6. Build independently. Use the documented toolchain in a clean environment, record the commit and artifact hash, and investigate diagnostics.
  7. Exercise behavior. Run focused, full, integration, and failure-case tests. Inspect security assertions and test coverage for the changed paths.
  8. Audit automation. Review scripts, CI, containers, release jobs, downloads, signing, and update logic for privilege or secret exposure.
  9. Install the candidate. Test the exact package on supported systems, including first run, upgrade, rollback, denied permissions, offline use, and removal.
  10. Verify metadata and access. For Flatpak, validate MetaInfo, exports, portals, and every manifest permission; for other formats, apply the same access, provenance, and desktop-behavior questions without assuming Flatpak rules.
  11. Sign off. Record the human owner, evidence reviewed, accepted limitations, monitoring plan, and rollback decision.

9. Common stop conditions and recovery

The summary says one thing, but the diff changes more

Stop the review and divide the work. Ask the author or agent to revert unrelated formatting, generated output, test deletion, and configuration changes, or to document each one as a separate purpose. Re-run the inventory after cleanup; do not approve a large unexplained diff because the feature itself appears small.

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A test passes only after an assertion was weakened

Restore the original expectation, add a regression test for the intended failure, and investigate why the implementation did not satisfy it. A test that merely avoids an exception is not proof that the operation is safe or correct.

A dependency cannot be verified

Do not merge it. Confirm the registry, package identity, maintainer, license, and integrity through an independent source. If the package is unnecessary, remove it; if it is essential, document the exception and obtain explicit maintainer approval.

The app needs a broad permission to function

Reproduce the requirement with the narrowest alternative first: a portal, read-only access, a specific directory, or a mediated desktop service. If broad access remains necessary, document the exact feature, affected data, threat model, and user-visible consequence, then obtain security-owner approval. Never retain a permission merely because removing it was inconvenient during testing.

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The packaged build behaves differently

Compare the installed artifact with the development build: bundled libraries, environment variables, launchers, metadata, sandbox grants, architecture, and update channels. Capture logs without secrets, fix the packaging recipe, rebuild from a clean state, and repeat the install and upgrade tests before release.

What approval means

Approval means the reviewer has examined the real diff, obtained independent behavioral evidence, understood the security and supply-chain implications, and verified the package users will receive. It does not mean an AI explanation was accepted, a test badge turned green, or a package launched once. If any material question remains unanswered—especially about authorization, secrets, external execution, dependency provenance, or sandbox access—the correct release decision is to hold the shipment until the owner can resolve it.

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