hyperledger/fabric · error

invalid arguments

Error message

invalid arguments

What it means

Returned by EnvelopeBasedPolicyProvider.NewPolicy when the supplied SignaturePolicyEnvelope pointer is nil. This is a caller contract violation: the function accepts an already-deserialized policy envelope (unlike the byte-slice provider) and rejects a missing one before any compilation.

Source

Thrown at common/cauthdsl/policy.go:62

		return nil, nil, err
	}

	return &policy{
		evaluator:               compiled,
		deserializer:            pr.deserializer,
		signaturePolicyEnvelope: sigPolicy,
	}, sigPolicy, nil
}

// EnvelopeBasedPolicyProvider allows to create a new policy from SignaturePolicyEnvelope struct instead of []byte
type EnvelopeBasedPolicyProvider struct {
	Deserializer msp.IdentityDeserializer
}

// NewPolicy creates a new policy from the policy envelope
func (pp *EnvelopeBasedPolicyProvider) NewPolicy(sigPolicy *cb.SignaturePolicyEnvelope) (policies.Policy, error) {
	if sigPolicy == nil {
		return nil, errors.New("invalid arguments")
	}

	compiled, err := compile(sigPolicy.Rule, sigPolicy.Identities)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	return &policy{
		evaluator:               compiled,
		deserializer:            pp.Deserializer,
		signaturePolicyEnvelope: sigPolicy,
	}, nil
}

type policy struct {
	signaturePolicyEnvelope *cb.SignaturePolicyEnvelope
	evaluator               func([]msp.Identity, []bool) bool
	deserializer            msp.IdentityDeserializer

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

1. Check the envelope for nil before calling NewPolicy
2. Fix the upstream producer so it returns an error instead of nil,enil when the envelope cannot be obtained

Example fix

// before
policy, err := pp.NewPolicy(maybeNilEnvelope) // panics/errors on nil
// after
if maybeNilEnvelope == nil {
    return nil, errors.New("policy envelope not found")
}
policy, err := pp.NewPolicy(maybeNilEnvelope)

if sigPolicy == nil {
    return errors.New("cannot build policy: envelope is nil")
}

func hasEnvelope(env *cb.SignaturePolicyEnvelope) bool { return env != nil }

policy, err := pp.NewPolicy(env)
if err != nil {
    if err.Error() == "invalid arguments" {
        return fmt.Errorf("no envelope provided for policy %q", id)
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling EnvelopeBasedPolicyProvider.NewPolicy(nil) — e.g. a caller that failed to fetch/decode the envelope upstream and forwards nil without checking.

Common situations: Lookup of a policy envelope that does not exist returns nil and the caller passes it straight through; refactored code paths dropping an earlier nil check.

Related errors

• invalid chaincode deployment spec
• nil arguments
• nil header
• Invalid policy name during check policy on channel [%s]. Nam
• Invalid policy name during channelless check policy. Name mu

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0e9f4b990b6ad01e. Report an issue: GitHub.