What causes "Cannot have signature setting of 0" in NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra?

Initialize the vector factory from a valid configuration before assigning it: load settings/weights so getSettings() is non-zero.

NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra · error · LSHException

Cannot have signature setting of 0

Error message

Cannot have signature setting of 0

What it means

Thrown by GenSignatures.setVectorFactory when the provided LSHVectorFactory reports a settings value of 0 (vFactory.getSettings() == 0). The settings value encodes the signature-generation configuration (weights, hashing); zero means the factory was never properly initialized, so BSim refuses to use it to avoid generating unusable signatures.

Source

Thrown at Ghidra/Features/BSim/src/main/java/ghidra/features/bsim/query/GenSignatures.java:117

	public void addFunctionTags(List<String> names) {
		if (names == null) {
			return;
		}
		int flag = 1;
		flag <<= FunctionTagBSimFilterType.RESERVED_BITS;			// The first bits are reserved
		for (String name : names) {
			if ((flag == 0) || (!CategoryRecord.enforceTypeCharacters(name))) {
				throw new IllegalArgumentException();
			}
			attributes.put(name, flag);
			flag <<= 1;
		}
	}

	public void setVectorFactory(LSHVectorFactory vFactory) throws LSHException {
		if (vFactory.getSettings() == 0) {
			throw new LSHException("Cannot have signature setting of 0");
		}
		if (vectorFactory == vFactory) {	// No change to factory
			return;
		}
		if (manager != null) {
			manager.clearFunctions();	// Clear out cached signature as settings have changed
		}
		vectorFactory = vFactory;
	}

	public void addDateColumnName(String name) {
		if (name == null) {
			return;
		}
		if (!CategoryRecord.enforceTypeCharacters(name)) {
			throw new IllegalArgumentException();
		}
		dateColumnName = name;

View on GitHub (pinned to d5f144c24d)

Solutions

Initialize the vector factory from a valid configuration before assigning it: load settings/weights so getSettings() is non-zero.
Use FunctionDatabase.generateLSHVectorFactory() plus a loaded Configuration to set up the factory properly.
Verify factory.getSettings() != 0 in a guard before calling setVectorFactory.

Example fix

// before
LSHVectorFactory factory = new WeightedLSHCosineVectorFactory(); // settings == 0
genSignatures.setVectorFactory(factory);
// after
WeightedLSHCosineVectorFactory factory = FunctionDatabase.generateLSHVectorFactory();
factory.setSettings(configuration); // loads non-zero settings
genSignatures.setVectorFactory(factory);

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Guard against a zero-settings vector factory
LSHVectorFactory factory = FunctionDatabase.generateLSHVectorFactory();
// ... initialize factory from a Configuration so settings are loaded ...
if (factory.getSettings() == 0) {
    throw new IllegalStateException(
        "Vector factory has settings == 0; configuration was not loaded");
}
genSignatures.setVectorFactory(factory);

Try / catch

try {
    genSignatures.setVectorFactory(factory);
} catch (LSHException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().contains("signature setting of 0")) {
        log.error("Vector factory not initialized; load a configuration first", e);
    }
    throw e;
}

Prevention

Always initialize the vector factory from a loaded Configuration before assigning it.
Assert factory.getSettings() != 0 in a helper that wires up GenSignatures.
Unit-test the factory initialization path so a regression that zeroes settings is caught.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling genSignatures.setVectorFactory(factory) where factory.getSettings() returns 0. This happens when a WeightedLSHCosineVectorFactory is constructed but its settings were never loaded from a configuration/weight file.

Common situations: Creating a vector factory manually without loading weights/settings. Loading a configuration failed silently or was skipped before assigning the factory. Using a freshly-constructed factory that has not been initialized via the configuration template.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra@d5f144c24d (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/97854868f857babf. Report an issue: GitHub.