apache/cassandra · error · MarshalException

Invalid bytes remaining after an end-of-component at compone

Error message

Invalid bytes remaining after an end-of-component at component

What it means

Thrown by AbstractCompositeType when deserializing/validating a composite value: after reading a component's end-of-component byte (0), additional bytes were found before the next component starts. The serialized composite is malformed — components must be terminated by exactly one zero byte with no trailing garbage in that slice.

Source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/marshal/AbstractCompositeType.java:328

            offset += getComparatorSize(i, input, accessor, offset);

            if (accessor.sizeFromOffset(input, offset) < 2)
                throw new MarshalException("Not enough bytes to read value size of component " + i);
            int length = accessor.getUnsignedShort(input, offset);
            offset += 2;

            if (accessor.sizeFromOffset(input, offset) < length)
                throw new MarshalException("Not enough bytes to read value of component " + i);
            V value = accessor.slice(input, offset, length);
            offset += length;

            comparator.validateCollectionMember(value, previous, accessor);

            if (accessor.isEmptyFromOffset(input, offset))
                throw new MarshalException("Not enough bytes to read the end-of-component byte of component" + i);
            byte b = accessor.getByte(input, offset++);
            if (b != 0 && !accessor.isEmptyFromOffset(input, offset))
                throw new MarshalException("Invalid bytes remaining after an end-of-component at component" + i);

            previous = value;
            ++i;
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void checkConstraints(ByteBuffer input, ColumnConstraints constraints) throws ConstraintViolationException
    {
        // no constraints defined for the partition keys
        if (!constraints.hasRelevantConstraints())
            return;

        ValueAccessor<ByteBuffer> accessor = ByteBufferAccessor.instance;

        boolean isStatic = readIsStatic(input, accessor);
        int offset = startingOffset(isStatic);

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

1. Regenerate the composite value using CompositeType.build() / the official serializer instead of hand-assembling bytes.
2. Check for data corruption: run scrub/verify on affected SSTables and restore from backup if needed.
3. Verify the client driver or tool writes composite values with correct length-prefixed components and a single terminating 0 byte.

Example fix

// before: hand-built composite
ByteBuffer bad = ByteBuffer.allocate(bytes.length + 1);
bad.put(bytes).put((byte) 0);
// after
ByteBuffer good = CompositeType.getInstance(BytesType.instance)
        .decompose("cell-name");

ByteBuffer v = serialized;
// round-trip check before use
try { compositeType.validate(v); } catch (MarshalException e) { /* rebuild with CompositeType.build() */ }

boolean isValidComposite(ByteBuffer v) { try { compositeType.validate(v.duplicate()); return true; } catch (MarshalException e) { return false; } }

catch (MarshalException e) { log.error("corrupt composite value", e); value = rebuildComposite(rawBytes); }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling AbstractCompositeType (or a subclass like CompositeType) validate/compose on a ByteBuffer whose serialized bytes contain non-zero bytes immediately after an end-of-component marker (byte != 0 at offset after marker while bytes remain).

Common situations: Corrupted SSTable or mutation data; hand-built composite ByteBuffers with wrong offsets/lengths; bugs in tools or drivers writing composite values directly; partial reads truncating a value incorrectly.

Understand the failure class

Background: Schema validation failed / invalid input schema: payload rejected because its shape doesn't match the expected schema — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

• Not enough bytes to read value size of component
• Not enough bytes to read value of component
• Not enough bytes to read the end-of-component byte of compon
• Not enough bytes to header of the comparator part of compone
• Not enough bytes to read comparator name of component %s

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fb2b9506a9442fe5. Report an issue: GitHub.