hyperledger/fabric · error · VSCCEndorsementPolicyError

GetChaincodeDeploymentSpec error %s

Error message

GetChaincodeDeploymentSpec error %s

What it means

VSCC's ValidateLSCCInvocation wraps the error from protoutil.UnmarshalChaincodeDeploymentSpec when parsing the second argument of an lscc transaction. The chaincode deployment spec bytes supplied in the LSCC invocation could not be deserialized into a pb.ChaincodeDeploymentSpec, so validation fails with a policy error (the transaction is marked invalid).

Source

Thrown at core/handlers/validation/builtin/v12/validation_logic.go:529

	logger.Debugf("VSCC info: ValidateLSCCInvocation acting on %s %#v", lsccFunc, lsccArgs)

	switch lsccFunc {
	case lscc.UPGRADE, lscc.DEPLOY:
		logger.Debugf("VSCC info: validating invocation of lscc function %s on arguments %#v", lsccFunc, lsccArgs)

		if len(lsccArgs) < 2 {
			return policyErr(fmt.Errorf("Wrong number of arguments for invocation lscc(%s): expected at least 2, received %d", lsccFunc, len(lsccArgs)))
		}

		if (!ac.PrivateChannelData() && len(lsccArgs) > 5) ||
			(ac.PrivateChannelData() && len(lsccArgs) > 6) {
			return policyErr(fmt.Errorf("Wrong number of arguments for invocation lscc(%s): received %d", lsccFunc, len(lsccArgs)))
		}

		cdsArgs, err := protoutil.UnmarshalChaincodeDeploymentSpec(lsccArgs[1])
		if err != nil {
			return policyErr(fmt.Errorf("GetChaincodeDeploymentSpec error %s", err))
		}

		if cdsArgs == nil || cdsArgs.ChaincodeSpec == nil || cdsArgs.ChaincodeSpec.ChaincodeId == nil ||
			cap.Action == nil || cap.Action.ProposalResponsePayload == nil {
			return policyErr(fmt.Errorf("VSCC error: invocation of lscc(%s) does not have appropriate arguments", lsccFunc))
		}

		switch cdsArgs.ChaincodeSpec.Type.String() {
		case "GOLANG", "NODE", "JAVA", "CAR":
		default:
			return policyErr(fmt.Errorf("unexpected chaincode spec type: %s", cdsArgs.ChaincodeSpec.Type.String()))
		}

		// validate chaincode name
		ccName := cdsArgs.ChaincodeSpec.ChaincodeId.Name
		// it must comply with the lscc.ChaincodeNameRegExp
		if !lscc.ChaincodeNameRegExp.MatchString(ccName) {
			return policyErr(errors.Errorf("invalid chaincode name '%s'", ccName))

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

1. Verify the transaction's second lscc argument is created via proto marshaling of ChaincodeDeploymentSpec (e.g. utils.Marshal or protoutil), not JSON or raw bytes.
2. Check SDK and peer Fabric versions align (v1.x proto definitions) and regenerate the payload with a matching protobuf runtime.
3. Re-inspect the original proposal payload for corruption/truncation in transit; re-submit the deploy transaction.

Example fix

// before: passing a JSON-marshaled spec
args[1], _ := json.Marshal(deploySpec)
// after: proto-marshal the deployment spec
args[1], err := protoutil.Marshal(deploySpec)
if err != nil { return err }

// client-side pre-check before submitting the lscc tx
specBytes := args[1]
var cds pb.ChaincodeDeploymentSpec
if len(specBytes) == 0 || proto.Unmarshal(specBytes, &cds) != nil || cds.ChaincodeSpec == nil {
    return errors.New("lscc arg[1] is not a valid ChaincodeDeploymentSpec")
}

func isValidCDSEntry(b []byte) bool {
    var cds pb.ChaincodeDeploymentSpec
    return len(b) > 0 && proto.Unmarshal(b, &cds) == nil && cds.ChaincodeSpec != nil
}

spec, err := protoutil.UnmarshalChaincodeDeploymentSpec(args[1])
if err != nil {
    logger.Warnf("malformed deployment spec, tx will be invalid: %v", err)
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: A transaction invoking lscc (deploy/upgrade) carries lsccArgs[1] that is not a valid serialized ChaincodeDeploymentSpec proto: empty bytes, truncated buffer, corrupted payload, or bytes produced by a non-protobuf encoder.

Common situations: Hand-crafted deploy transactions (SDK or CLI misuse), payloads mangled by an intermediary or proxy, Fabric SDK/proto version mismatch producing an incompatible serialization, or fuzzed/malicious transactions rejected during block validation.

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

• GetChaincodeAction error %s
• invalid key for the collection of chaincode %s:%s; expected
• collection configuration arguments supplied for chaincode %s
• VSCC error: invocation of lscc(%s) does not have appropriate
• unexpected chaincode spec type: %s

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3db18fa3fff032ca. Report an issue: GitHub.