Specification: PUA Allowlisting with User Warnings by denelon · Pull Request #6293 · microsoft/winget-cli

denelon · 2026-06-17T17:42:02Z

📖 Description

Specification for a tiered PUA classification system enabling legitimate software (RustDesk, Malwarebytes, etc.) to be published to winget-pkgs with governed allowlisting, client-side warnings, and Group Policy controls. Includes manifest schema extension, validation pipeline changes, and enterprise policy management.

Changes addressing review feedback (June 22):

Removed version-specific numbers from headings and schema version reference
Rewrote allowlist governance to use the existing waiver system (human validation by Microsoft maintainer via PR label, not a policy bot config or community-maintained YAML file)
Fixed --silent behavior: only affects installer switches, does not suppress PUA warnings
Added --ignore-warnings support for suppressing PUA warning output
Replaced --include-security with existing --details flag for PUA info in show/search/list
Clarified PUA categories are derived from various AV vendors (Defender, ESET, K7, Malwarebytes, etc.), not a single source
Documented waiver flow: validation pipeline applies label → Microsoft maintainer reviews → waiver granted internally

Authored with GitHub Copilot assistance.

🔗 References

Related Issues:

🔍 Validation

Spec document — no code changes to validate.

✅ Checklist

Signed the Contributor License Agreement
Linked to an issue
Updated Release Notes (if applicable)
Updated documentation (if applicable)
Updated Copilot instructions (if build, architecture, or conventions changed)

📋 Issue Type

Bug fix
Feature
Task

Microsoft Reviewers: Open in CodeFlow

Specification for a tiered PUA classification system enabling legitimate software (RustDesk, Malwarebytes, etc.) to be published to winget-pkgs with governed allowlisting, client warnings, and GPO controls. Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

Trenly · 2026-06-17T18:24:17Z

+| **Restricted** | Legitimate uses but elevated risk profile | Moderator review required | Strong warning + consent |
+| **Blocked** | Confirmed unwanted/malicious | Rejected | N/A |
+
+### Manifest Schema Extension (v1.29.0)


Remove version

Trenly · 2026-06-17T18:27:19Z

+
+### Allowlist Governance
+
+Maintained as `policies/pua-allowlist.yaml` in `winget-pkgs`:


Clarify if this file is maintained by automation, or manually. What edit restrictions need to be placed on it at pkgs?

Trenly · 2026-06-17T18:28:47Z

+#### `--silent`:
+
+Warning suppressed entirely. Installation proceeds.
+


--silent does not currently control any CLI behavior as far as I'm aware, it only uses the silent installer switches. Confirm if the two behaviors should be mixed

Trenly · 2026-06-17T18:29:37Z

+#### `--silent`:
+
+Warning suppressed entirely. Installation proceeds.
+


Missing --ignore-warnings

Trenly · 2026-06-17T18:30:16Z

+| `winget upgrade` | Show PUA warning if upgrading a PUA package |
+| `winget show` | Display PUA classification in package details |
+| `winget search` | `--include-security` shows PUA flag in results |
+| `winget list` | `--include-security` shows PUA flag for installed PUA packages |


Why not --details ?

Trenly · 2026-06-17T18:30:34Z

+
+### Schema Version
+
+Requires manifest schema version 1.29.0 for the `PuaClassification` field.


Remove version information

pl4nty · 2026-06-20T10:38:11Z

+
+## Inspiration
+
+Microsoft Defender's PUA detection flags software based on behavioral categories. While protective for most users, these heuristics also block legitimate software:


Most of the detections I've encountered have been K7 and ESET (via ScanX?), rather than Defender. eg RustDesk is flagged by ESET, Malwarebytes by K7

I'm really glad to see progress on this feature!

pl4nty · 2026-06-20T10:40:26Z

+- **AnyDesk**, **TeamViewer** portable editions — Flagged under remote access category
+- Other legitimate tools — Flagged for system-level access patterns
+
+Their absence from `winget-pkgs` damages credibility and drives users to less-safe acquisition methods (direct downloads from unknown mirrors, Chocolatey community packages without validation).


Also, sometimes specific versions slip through. winget-pkgs ends up with old or vulnerable versions

pl4nty · 2026-06-20T10:43:34Z

+
+| Property | Type | Required | Description |
+|----------|------|----------|-------------|
+| `Categories` | string[] | Yes | PUA categories detected (enum: see below) |


Does ScanX or something else define these categories? At the moment, public contributors just see the detection name, which seems to vary wildly across vendors

pl4nty · 2026-06-20T10:48:49Z

+- Changes require a dedicated PR (not bundled with manifest submissions)
+- Minimum 2 moderator approvals for `Allowed` tier
+- Microsoft security team sign-off required for `Restricted` tier
+- Annual re-review required (ReviewDate must be within 12 months)


Would these reviews be triggered automatically, and/or in public?

- Remove version-specific numbers from headings - Rewrite governance to use waiver system (Microsoft human review, not policy bot) - Fix --silent: only affects installer switches, not PUA warnings - Add --ignore-warnings for suppressing PUA warning output - Replace --include-security with --details (existing flag) - Clarify PUA categories come from various AV vendors (not just Defender) - Document waiver flow: label on PR signals Microsoft maintainer to review Co-authored-by: Copilot <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

github-actions · 2026-06-22T17:40:37Z

@check-spelling-bot Report

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Unrecognized words (8)

AGPL
Bundleware
ESET
Keyloggers
Malwarebytes
rustdesk
upvotes
waivered

These words are not needed and should be removed

AAD ABCD abi ACL'd AMap Amd appdata ARMNT asan Baz bitmask bluetooth boundparms brk Buf certs cgi CMSG codepage commandline constexpr Cov cswinrt CTL Dbg Dcom decompressor dedupe DEFT devhome Dns dsc ERANGE errcode errmsg errstr filemode Finalizers FULLWIDTH fuzzer GES github Hackathon HINSTANCE hlocal hmac Hyperlink ICONDIR icu idx img inet Intelli iwr JDK LCID lhs LONGLONG LPBYTE LPCWSTR LPDWORD LPSTR LPVOID LPWSTR MAJORVERSION MAXLENGTH maxvalue MDs MINORVERSION mta nlohmann NONAME NOUPDATE NTFS ofile oid oop OPTOUT outfile OUTOFMEMORY PARAMETERMAP pdb PDWORD pid PKCS pkix placeholders positionals posix pscustomobject pseudocode PSHOST publickey qword redirector regexes remoting reparse REQS rhs rowid RTTI runspace runtimes SARL savepoint Scm sid sqlite subdir subkey trimstart ttl typedef uninitialize uninstallation UNMARSHALING userprofile versioned Webserver website wildcards winreg WMI workaround Wpp wsl

To accept these unrecognized words as correct and remove the previously acknowledged and now absent words, you could run the following commands

... in a clone of the git@github.com:denelon/winget-cli.git repository
on the spec/pua-allowlisting branch (ℹ️ how do I use this?):

curl -s -S -L 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/check-spelling/check-spelling/v0.0.26/apply.pl' |
perl - 'https://github.com/microsoft/winget-cli/actions/runs/27971972268/attempts/1' &&
git commit -m 'Update check-spelling metadata'

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# hit-count: 1 file-count: 1
# regex choice
\(\?:[^)]+\|[^)]+\)

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Warnings and Notices ⚠️ (2)

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⚠️ Warnings and Notices	Count
ℹ️ candidate-pattern	2
⚠️ unexpected-line-ending	2

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If the flagged items are 🤯 false positives

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Please add a file path to the excludes.txt file matching the containing file.

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Trenly reviewed Jun 17, 2026

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pl4nty reviewed Jun 20, 2026

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Specification: PUA Allowlisting with User Warnings#6293

Specification: PUA Allowlisting with User Warnings#6293
denelon wants to merge 2 commits into
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denelon:spec/pua-allowlisting

denelon commented Jun 17, 2026 •

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		### Allowlist Governance

		Maintained as `policies/pua-allowlist.yaml` in `winget-pkgs`:

		#### `--silent`:

		Warning suppressed entirely. Installation proceeds.


		### Schema Version

		Requires manifest schema version 1.29.0 for the `PuaClassification` field.


		## Inspiration

		Microsoft Defender's PUA detection flags software based on behavioral categories. While protective for most users, these heuristics also block legitimate software:

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denelon commented Jun 17, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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📖 Description

🔗 References

🔍 Validation

✅ Checklist

📋 Issue Type

Microsoft Reviewers: Open in CodeFlow

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github-actions Bot commented Jun 22, 2026

@check-spelling-bot Report

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denelon commented Jun 17, 2026 •

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