hyperledger/fabric · error

The signature is invalid

Error message

The signature is invalid

What it means

identity.Verify: the BCCSP signature verification completed without transport error but returned valid=false, i.e., the signature over the message/digest does not match the identity's public key. The subject/issuer/serial of the offending cert are warned in logs.

Source

Thrown at msp/identities.go:202

		digestOrMsg, err = id.msp.bccsp.Hash(msg, hashOpt)
		if err != nil {
			return errors.WithMessage(err, "failed computing digest")
		}
	}

	if mspIdentityLogger.IsEnabledFor(zapcore.DebugLevel) {
		mspIdentityLogger.Debugf("Verify: signer identity (certificate subject=%s issuer=%s serialnumber=%d)", id.cert.Subject, id.cert.Issuer, id.cert.SerialNumber)
		// mspIdentityLogger.Debugf("Verify: digest = %s", hex.Dump(digest))
		// mspIdentityLogger.Debugf("Verify: sig = %s", hex.Dump(sig))
	}

	valid, err := id.msp.bccsp.Verify(id.pk, sig, digestOrMsg, nil)
	if err != nil {
		return errors.WithMessage(err, "could not determine the validity of the signature")
	} else if !valid {
		mspIdentityLogger.Warnf("The signature is invalid for (certificate subject=%s issuer=%s serialnumber=%d)", id.cert.Subject, id.cert.Issuer, id.cert.SerialNumber)
		return errors.New("The signature is invalid")
	}

	return nil
}

// Serialize returns a byte array representation of this identity
func (id *identity) Serialize() ([]byte, error) {
	pb := &pem.Block{Bytes: id.cert.Raw, Type: "CERTIFICATE"}
	pemBytes := pem.EncodeToMemory(pb)
	if pemBytes == nil {
		return nil, errors.New("encoding of identity failed")
	}

	// We serialize identities by prepending the MSPID and appending the ASN.1 DER content of the cert
	sId := &msp.SerializedIdentity{Mspid: id.id.Mspid, IdBytes: pemBytes}
	idBytes, err := proto.Marshal(sId)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, errors.Wrapf(err, "could not marshal a SerializedIdentity structure for identity %s", id.id)

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

1. Ensure the message bytes and signature come from the same signer
2. Check the identity certificate matches the key used to sign
3. Reject the proposal/transaction and re-authenticate the client

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at msp/identities.go:202 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5aafc45ee33d4bf6. Report an issue: GitHub.