NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra · error · LSHException

Bad characters in proposed category type

Error message

Bad characters in proposed category type

What it means

fdbInstallCategory validates query.type_name with enforceTypeCharacters; if it fails (null/empty or a disallowed character) it throws LSHException("Bad characters in proposed category type") before writing anything to configuration.

Source

Thrown at Ghidra/Features/BSim/src/main/java/ghidra/features/bsim/query/elastic/ElasticDatabase.java:2919

			}
			if (!names.add(name)) {
				throw new LSHException("Duplicate " + type + " entry specified: " + name);
			}
		}
	}

	/**
	 * Entry point for the InstallCategoryRequest command:
	 *   Install a new executable category to be managed by the database
	 * @param query is command parameters
	 * @throws LSHException if the command is misconfigured
	 * @throws ElasticException for communication problems with the server
	 */
	private void fdbInstallCategory(InstallCategoryRequest query)
			throws LSHException, ElasticException {
		ResponseInfo response = query.installresponse;
		if (!CategoryRecord.enforceTypeCharacters(query.type_name)) {
			throw new LSHException("Bad characters in proposed category type");
		}
		if (query.isdatecolumn) {
			info.dateColumnName = query.type_name;
			StringBuilder buffer = new StringBuilder();
			buffer.append("{ \"type\": \"keyvalue\", \"value\": \"")
					.append(info.dateColumnName)
					.append("\" }");
			connection.executeStatementNoResponse(ElasticConnection.PUT, "configuration/datecolumn",
				buffer.toString());
			response.info = info;
			return;
		}
		// Check for existing category
		if (info.execats != null) {
			for (String cat : info.execats) {
				if (cat.equals(query.type_name)) {
					throw new LSHException("Executable category already exists");
				}

View on GitHub (pinned to d5f144c24d)

Solutions

1. Sanitize type_name to the allowed character set before issuing the request.
2. Reject null/empty upstream and surface a clear form/CLI error.

Example fix

// before
req.type_name = raw; // 'my-category'
// after
req.type_name = sanitizeCategory(raw); // 'my_category'

if (!CategoryRecord.enforceTypeCharacters(req.type_name))
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid category name: " + req.type_name);

boolean validCategory = CategoryRecord.enforceTypeCharacters(name);

When it happens

Trigger: An InstallCategoryRequest whose type_name is None, empty, or contains characters outside the allowed set (alphanumeric, space, . _ : / ( )).

Common situations: Category name derived from a path/symbol with disallowed punctuation; empty value from a missing CLI arg; trailing newline.

Related errors

• Bad characters in one or more proposed {type}
• Bad characters in proposed category type
• Bad characters in proposed function tag
• Bad category tag
• Bad characters in one or more proposed ${type}

AI-assisted analysis of NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra@d5f144c24d (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4b7f2a386e045e3a. Report an issue: GitHub.