canopy-network/canopy · error

unrecognized public key format

Error message

unrecognized public key format

What it means

Raised in the batch verifier Add method when a key submitted for batched verification has a byte length matching no supported public key format. The same guard as NewPublicKeyFromBytes but applied at batch-accept time, so a malformed signature tuple is rejected before being queued into a typed batch bucket.

Source

Thrown at lib/crypto/key_batch.go:91

		// exit
		return nil
	}
	// initialize the batch tuple object and append to the proper list
	t := BatchTuple{PublicKey: pk, Message: message, Signature: signature, index: b.count}
	listIdx := b.count % 8
	// classify by the decoded key type so serialized multisig keys follow the same path
	// as one-by-one verification through NewPublicKeyFromBytes().
	switch pk.(type) {
	case *ED25519PublicKey:
		b.ed25519[listIdx] = append(b.ed25519[listIdx], t)
	case *ETHSECP256K1PublicKey:
		b.ethSecp256k1[listIdx] = append(b.ethSecp256k1[listIdx], t)
	case *SECP256K1PublicKey:
		b.secp256k1[listIdx] = append(b.secp256k1[listIdx], t)
	case *BLS12381PublicKey, *BLS12381MultiPublicKey:
		b.bls12381[listIdx] = append(b.bls12381[listIdx], t)
	default:
		return fmt.Errorf("unrecognized public key format")
	}
	// increment the global count
	b.count++
	// exit
	return
}

// Count() returns the number of signatures added to the batch verifier.
func (b *BatchVerifier) Count() int {
	if b == nil {
		return 0
	}
	return b.count
}

// Verify() returns the indices of bad signatures (if any)
func (b *BatchVerifier) Verify() (badIndices []int) {
	// initialize sync variables

View on GitHub (pinned to ee8197d91d)

Solutions

1. Validate the key's byte length/format before adding the tuple to the batch verifier.
2. Ensure multisig (serialized multi-BLS) keys go through the same decoding used by NewPublicKeyFromBytes.
3. Check callers like CheckSignature for corrupted or truncated key bytes in the signature payload.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at lib/crypto/key_batch.go:91 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of canopy-network/canopy@ee8197d91d (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8d0a4735285aa38c. Report an issue: GitHub.