ARK-452 — Multi-Step Workflow With One Invalid Step (v1.0, PASS)

ARK-452 — Multi-Step Workflow With One Invalid Step ExecutionProof ARK Authorization-Boundary Track — Remnant Fieldworks Inc. Verdict: PASS (raw-primary), executed on IBM Quantum ibm_marrakesh (156-qubit Heron r2), 2026-07-17. Doctrine tested: In a sequential multi-step workflow, prior valid steps do NOT authorize the irreversible execution step. Each step requires independent authorization; any single inadmissible step halts execution. Design: single payload qubit Q_P; X gate iff c_exec = c_s1 AND c_s2 AND c_s3 AND c_s4. Nine arms (2 ALLOW, 7 DENY covering every invalid-step position plus blanket-authorization and skip-approval attacks), 8192 shots each; SPAM gate 2048 shots. Results: S_A_min = 0.9392 (≥ 0.90), L_D_max = 0.0017 (≤ 0.02), Δ_B = 0.9375 (≥ 0.70), SPAM_P = 0.0073 (≤ 0.02). All seven DENY arms fail closed (0.0006–0.0017). The blanket-authorization attempt (arm 7) and skip-approval attack (arm 9) both fail closed; a re-authorized workflow (arm 8) executes normally. Analysis doctrine: raw-primary. A single payload qubit is used, so no authorizer-qubit SPAM_A correction exists or is applied; SPAM_P is a gating diagnostic only and is never subtracted from leakage. This deliberately avoids the ARK-449 v1.1 error corrected in ARK-449 v1.2. Provenance: preregistration locked and SHA-256-hashed (tag ark-452-v1.0-lock) before submission; both job IDs committed to git before any results were read (SPAM d9cspi4inv1c73ao83ng, principal d9cspicjeosc73fgnti0). Result tag ark-452-v1.0. Q_P = qubit 1, readout error 0.0022. Repository: github.com/derekhone/executionproof-testbeds License: CC0 (public domain)