A Word control can change while its XML anchor stays fixed

Document Change Assurance Benchmark 0.16.0 adds a twenty-seventh deterministic pair for a narrow but important review boundary: an ActiveX control’s opaque persistence binary can change while its visible Word anchor and surrounding XML topology stay fixed.

The new case is embedded.activex_control_persistence_payload_changed. Both packages keep their member set, stored Word text, w:object/w:control anchor, ActiveX XML persistence part, content types, and internal relationships. Only word/activeX/activeX1.bin changes.

The chain is part of the fact

Microsoft’s w:control reference describes the embedded-control anchor under a Word w:object. Its ax:ocx contract defines the class/persistence metadata and binary relationship reference. The Embedded Control Persistence Binary Data contract specifies the internal activeXControlBinary target.

word/document.xml
  w:object / w:control
    -> internal control relationship
    -> ActiveX persistence XML
    -> internal persistence-binary relationship
    -> activeX1.bin (the only changed member)

A reviewer needs to associate both relationships, not merely notice a binary part. DCAB fixes that entire topology and changes only inert synthetic marker bytes.

Static evidence, no activation

The payload is deliberately not a loadable control stream. DCAB never parses it, opens Word, loads or instantiates a control, renders a placeholder, invokes a client/server, authenticates, or claims runtime behavior. It is a static package-review test, not an execution or compatibility test.

The optional DocFence 0.27.0 adapter recognizes the transition from target-free aggregate evidence: embedded_object_inventory_changed plus stable two-part/two-relationship control topology and one internal Word anchor. It reaches a strict 27/27 score without exposing the control name, class ID, persistence metadata, relationship IDs, paths, payload bytes, or private fingerprints.

Hosted CI passed on Python 3.11–3.13. Fresh wheel and source-distribution installs, public GitHub release downloads, and a fresh Hugging Face dataset snapshot all validate the 27-case corpus.

python -m pip install https://github.com/SybilGambleyyu/document-change-benchmark/releases/download/v0.16.0/document_change_benchmark-0.16.0-py3-none-any.whl
dcab validate
dcab docfence-observations --executable docfence --output observations.json
dcab score --observations observations.json --strict

DCAB 0.16.0 retains fixture schema version 1. It adds one opaque-persistence review boundary—not a control loader, runtime analyzer, document renderer, or universal security-policy claim.

The canonical version of this article is A Word control can change while its XML anchor stays fixed.