# IV. Coverage

### Part 4 — Platform Coverage Map: End-to-End Web Stack

#### 1. Coverage Taxonomy

1.1 **System-of-systems definition.** The web is treated as a coupled, multi-layer infrastructure system spanning: naming and addressing, transport and routing dependencies, hosting and compute concentration, application surfaces, identity and trust primitives, software supply chains, data rights and consent mechanisms, AI-mediated interaction, authenticity and information integrity, and accessibility and inclusion.

1.2 **Coverage boundary.** Coverage is limited to lawful, non-intrusive observatory methods and research-grade analysis. The Guild does not conduct operational enforcement, does not run incident command, and does not perform regulated compliance determinations.

1.3 **Measurement unit-of-analysis.** Measurements are organized around canonical “objects” (Part 8) including assets, endpoints, dependencies, certificates, controls, events, incidents, claims, evidence, and determinations—each with provenance, confidence, limitations, and correction pathways.

1.4 **Domains and lanes.** Platform coverage is defined as domains and lanes, each with:\
1.4.1 permitted inputs;\
1.4.2 standard metrics and uncertainty posture;\
1.4.3 artifact outputs (alerts, reports, benchmarks, AEPs);\
1.4.4 default handling class;\
1.4.5 anti-gaming controls and contestability hooks.

1.5 **Cross-cutting invariants.** All domains must comply with: rights safeguards, contestability, privacy minimization, neutrality, correctionability, reproducibility, dual-use safety, and non-execution perimeter.

***

#### 2. Domains and Lanes (v1.0)

**2.1 Core Internet Infrastructure**

2.1.1 **Scope.** DNS/DNSSEC posture; registries/registrars; resolution integrity; authoritative nameserver diversity; CDN/edge dependencies; hosting/cloud concentration; time/NTP dependencies; dependency coupling and single points of failure.\
2.1.2 **Primary outputs.** Dependency maps; concentration indicators; misconfiguration prevalence; outage cascade models (research-grade); time-to-recover statistics (observed); comparative infrastructure benchmarks.\
2.1.3 **Non-equivalence warning.** Infrastructure concentration metrics are not an “availability guarantee” and do not imply operator fault or negligence.

**2.2 Web Security Engineering**

2.2.1 **Scope.** OWASP web/app/API exposure; attack surface measurement; secure headers and policy controls (CSP, HSTS, SRI where observable); authentication/session pattern risk research; observable vulnerability signals; incident and campaign intelligence (research products); measurement of supply chain exposure (by observation, not exploitation).\
2.2.2 **Outputs.** Risk heatmaps; control prevalence baselines; comparative benchmarks; advisory patterns (non-operational); AEPs for security posture determinations.\
2.2.3 **Dual-use limit.** Publication is abstracted to avoid exploit enablement; the Guild does not publish step-by-step exploit playbooks.

**2.3 Software Supply Chain Integrity**

2.3.1 **Scope.** Third-party script prevalence; dependency ecosystems and transitive exposure; SBOM/SLSA adoption signals; signing and provenance patterns; update channel integrity research; drift and dependency churn metrics.\
2.3.2 **Outputs.** Supply chain exposure indices; provenance adoption baselines; third-party script risk profiles (research-grade); reproducible datasets and benchmark batteries.

**2.4 PKI, Certificates, and Trust Stores**

2.4.1 **Scope.** TLS configuration baselines; certificate issuance posture; certificate transparency (CT) signal integration; revocation realities measurement; CA incident intelligence (public sources); root store drift; post-quantum transition readiness hooks (observables only).\
2.4.2 **Outputs.** Certificate hygiene metrics; configuration prevalence; risk posture comparisons; AEPs for PKI determinations with explicit uncertainty and limitations.

**2.5 Privacy, Data Rights, and Consent Systems**

2.5.1 **Scope.** Tracker ecology; cookie and local storage patterns; fingerprinting indicators (observable); consent UX patterns (research-grade); data flow mapping by observable calls; cross-border transfer signals where lawful and inferable; privacy policy structure analysis (non-legal).\
2.5.2 **Outputs.** Privacy exposure heatmaps; consent pattern benchmarks; vendor ecosystem mapping; rights-preserving guidance patterns (non-advice) with non-equivalence warnings.\
2.5.3 **Strict boundary.** Outputs are not legal determinations of compliance and must not be represented as such.

**2.6 Identity, Authentication, and Trust**

2.6.1 **Scope.** Passkey and phishing-resistance adoption signals; session integrity patterns; account recovery safety research; observable fraud patterns; DID/VC interoperability research; identity minimization patterns.\
2.6.2 **Outputs.** Adoption baselines; risk pattern catalogues; comparative benchmarks; AEPs for identity posture determinations (research-grade).

**2.7 AI-on-Web and Agentic Web Risks**

2.7.1 **Scope.** Synthetic content prevalence measurement; bot and agent traffic indicators (research-grade); prompt injection surface patterns; AI API security posture signals; model/system transparency patterns; containment patterns for agentic workflows (observed claims and published configs where available); provenance linkage to authenticity mechanisms.\
2.7.2 **Outputs.** AI risk observatory reports; agentic risk pattern library; authenticity coupling analyses; benchmark batteries for detection methods with anti-gaming controls.\
2.7.3 **Boundary.** The Guild does not publish evasion playbooks; detection methods are disclosed with misuse resistance.

**2.8 Content Authenticity and Information Integrity**

2.8.1 **Scope.** Provenance mechanisms (C2PA and adjacent) adoption signals; credential verification patterns (where public); source attribution and edit-history patterns (where observable); coordinated inauthentic behavior measurement (research-grade); crisis communications resilience patterns; credibility attack resistance without censorship blueprinting.\
2.8.2 **Outputs.** Provenance adoption baselines; authenticity workflow patterns; integrity benchmarks; AEPs for integrity determinations with contestability routes.

**2.9 Web3, Decentralization, and dApps**

2.9.1 **Scope.** Smart contract risk research (from public code and audits); oracle and bridge pattern analysis; governance concentration metrics; wallet/key management safety patterns (education-grade); decentralization measurement approaches; ENS/DNS coupling where relevant.\
2.9.2 **Outputs.** Protocol risk profiles (research-grade); audit intelligence summaries (non-advice); bridge/oracle exposure indices; reproducible datasets and benchmark suites.\
2.9.3 **Boundary.** No trading signals, no market manipulation cues, no operational exploitation guidance.

**2.10 Accessibility and Digital Inclusion**

2.10.1 **Scope.** WCAG conformance research (automated testing limitations disclosed); assistive tech compatibility signals where testable; cognitive accessibility patterns; low-bandwidth and offline resilience patterns; multilingual inclusion indicators.\
2.10.2 **Outputs.** Accessibility benchmarks with error budgets; improvement pattern libraries; inclusion baselines; education labs and reproducible test harnesses.

**2.11 Performance, Reliability, and Resilience Engineering**

2.11.1 **Scope.** Core Web Vitals research; endpoint availability measurement (non-intrusive); outage cascade modeling (research-grade); SLO/SLA pattern catalogues (informational); graceful degradation patterns; dependency shock propagation (observational).\
2.11.2 **Outputs.** Performance benchmarks; reliability indices; incident/outage observatory reports; AEPs for resilience determinations.

**2.12 Standards, Governance, and Regulatory Interoperability**

2.12.1 **Scope.** W3C/IETF/ICANN standards intelligence; standards adoption mapping; policy-to-tech translation hooks (informational only); portability notes; non-equivalence warnings; cross-jurisdiction terminology mapping.\
2.12.2 **Outputs.** Standards trackers; interoperability maps; implementation pattern libraries; research briefs designed for neutral reuse.

**2.13 Measurement, Benchmarks, and Observatory Science**

2.13.1 **Scope.** Sampling methods; bias controls; drift monitoring; confidence interval discipline; longitudinal comparability; error budgets; benchmark anti-gaming; appeals and contestability design.\
2.13.2 **Outputs.** Benchmark frameworks; dataset quality reports; measurement safety standards; reproducibility assets (RS ladder) and evidence sufficiency mappings (E ladder).

***

#### 3. Cross-Cutting Invariants (Mandatory Across Domains)

3.1 **Rights safeguards.** Privacy minimization, non-discrimination, accessibility-first posture, and due process by contestability.\
3.2 **Neutrality.** No vendor preference, no procurement steering, no certification posture, no endorsement lists.\
3.3 **Correctionability.** No silent edits; corrections and supersessions are recorded and distributed with version pointers.\
3.4 **Reproducibility.** Methods, data lineage, and environments are documented to the declared RS level; limitations are explicit.\
3.5 **Dual-use safety.** Abstraction and controlled detail; coordinated disclosure interfaces; “do not deploy if…” gates.\
3.6 **Separation of roles.** Observatory outputs inform; adopters decide and execute under their authority; the Guild does not dispatch, enforce, or operate.


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