hyperledger/fabric · error

GetChaincodeAction error %s

Error message

GetChaincodeAction error %s

What it means

Wrap of a protobuf unmarshal failure in extractValidationArtifacts (v2.0 validation logic): the ProposalResponsePayload extension bytes could not be decoded into a ChaincodeAction. It fires during transaction validation when a proposal response payload is malformed or was crafted with a non-ChaincodeAction extension, so response/validation artifacts cannot be extracted.

Source

Thrown at core/handlers/validation/builtin/v20/validation_logic.go:164

	cap, err := protoutil.UnmarshalChaincodeActionPayload(tx.Actions[actionPosition].Payload)
	if err != nil {
		logger.Errorf("VSCC error: GetChaincodeActionPayload failed, err %s", err)
		return nil, err
	}

	pRespPayload, err := protoutil.UnmarshalProposalResponsePayload(cap.Action.ProposalResponsePayload)
	if err != nil {
		err = fmt.Errorf("GetProposalResponsePayload error %s", err)
		return nil, err
	}
	if pRespPayload.Extension == nil {
		err = fmt.Errorf("nil pRespPayload.Extension")
		return nil, err
	}
	respPayload, err := protoutil.UnmarshalChaincodeAction(pRespPayload.Extension)
	if err != nil {
		err = fmt.Errorf("GetChaincodeAction error %s", err)
		return nil, err
	}

	return &validationArtifacts{
		rwset:        respPayload.Results,
		prp:          cap.Action.ProposalResponsePayload,
		endorsements: cap.Action.Endorsements,
		chdr:         chdr,
		env:          env,
		payl:         payl,
		cap:          cap,
	}, nil
}

// Validate validates the given envelope corresponding to a transaction with an endorsement
// policy as given in its serialized form.
// Note that in the case of dependencies in a block, such as tx_n modifying the endorsement policy
// for key a and tx_n+1 modifying the value of key a, Validate(tx_n+1) will block until Validate(tx_n)

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

1. Align fabric-protos versions between the transaction producer and the peer
2. Rebuild/re-submit the transaction using a supported SDK so ChaincodeAction is marshaled correctly
3. Check for block-store corruption; verify the block source (snapshot, orderer) is intact
4. Treat as invalid transaction if it originates from a malicious client — validation code TX_MALFORMED

Example fix

// before
prp.Extension = protoutil.MarshalOrPanic(&peer.Response{}) // wrong message type
// after
prp.Extension = protoutil.MarshalOrPanic(&peer.ChaincodeAction{
    Results: rwsetBytes,
    Response: &peer.Response{Status: 200},
})

ca := &peer.ChaincodeAction{}
if err := proto.Unmarshal(prp.Extension, ca); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("extension is not a valid ChaincodeAction")
}

func isValidChaincodeAction(b []byte) bool {
    ca := &peer.ChaincodeAction{}
    return proto.Unmarshal(b, ca) == nil && ca.Results != nil
}

artifacts, err := extractValidationArtifacts(bytes, policy)
if err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "GetChaincodeAction error") {
        return nil, validationerrors.TXMalformed
    }
    return nil, err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Extension bytes in a transaction's ProposalResponsePayload are corrupted, truncated, or were produced by a different proto message type / incompatible schema version.

Common situations: Proto schema drift between client SDK and peer; a buggy custom endorser marshaling the wrong message into Extension; corrupted block data on disk or in transit.

Understand the failure class

Background: "cannot parse invalid wire-format data", "cannot unmarshal", "failed unmarshalling": protobuf unmarshal errors explained — this error's family across 10 libraries.

Related errors

• GetProposalResponsePayload error %s
• error unmarshalling ChaincodeAction
• error unmarshalling ProposalResponsePayload
• error unmarshalling Transaction
• error unmarshalling

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1ad59e3a20d8fd1c. Report an issue: GitHub.