passbolt/passbolt_api · error · ValidationException

The OpenPGP key data is not valid.

Error message

The OpenPGP key data is not valid.

What it means

After building the user's MetadataPrivateKey entity, the service throws ValidationException with 'The OpenPGP key data is not valid.' if the entity has validation errors or fails table rules check. The encrypted metadata private key data produced for the user did not pass entity/application validation.

Solutions

1. Enable debug mode and read the logged json_encode'd entity errors for the exact failing field
2. Re-validate the user's public key and re-run the share
3. Verify the generated encrypted message is a non-empty valid OpenPGP message before saving
4. Check application rules on MetadataPrivateKeysTable for constraints the payload violates

$encrypted = $openpgp->encrypt($clearText, true);
if (!is_string($encrypted) || $encrypted === '') {
    throw new RuntimeException('Empty encrypted payload');
}

try {
    $shareService->shareMetadataKeysWithUser($user);
} catch (ValidationException $e) {
    $errors = $e->getEntity()?->getErrors(); // inspect failing field
}

When it happens

Trigger: shareMetadataKeyWithUser() builds newEntity([...]) for MetadataPrivateKey; newEntity has errors, or checkRules() fails, e.g. the encrypted message is empty or the armored data invalid.

Common situations: Encryption produced an empty/invalid payload because of a broken user key; rules rejecting data not matching the expected OpenPGP message format; debug mode logs the exact errors.

Understand the failure class

Background: Schema validation failed / invalid input schema: payload rejected because its shape doesn't match the expected schema — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

• A valid OpenPGP key must be provided.
• A valid OpenPGP key must be provided.
• Could not save the account recovery private key.
• Could not validate key revocation.
• Could not validate message data.

AI-assisted analysis of passbolt/passbolt_api@31c1bbc10f (2026-09-17). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9e72e0771c94e446. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at plugins/PassboltCe/Metadata/src/Service/MetadataKeyShareDefaultService.php:118

        try {
            /** @var \Passbolt\Metadata\Model\Entity\MetadataPrivateKey $userMetadataPrivateKey */
            $userMetadataPrivateKey = $metadataPrivateKeysTable->newEntity([
                'metadata_key_id' => $serverMetadataPrivateKey->metadata_key_id,
                'user_id' => $user->id,
                'data' => $secret,
            ], [
                'accessibleFields' => [
                    'metadata_key_id' => true,
                    'user_id' => true,
                    'data' => true,
                ],
            ]);
            if (!empty($userMetadataPrivateKey->getErrors())) {
                if (Configure::read('debug')) {
                    Log::error(json_encode($userMetadataPrivateKey->getErrors()));
                }
                $msg = __('The OpenPGP key data is not valid.');
                throw new ValidationException($msg, $userMetadataPrivateKey, $metadataPrivateKeysTable);
            }
            if (!$metadataPrivateKeysTable->checkRules($userMetadataPrivateKey)) {
                if (Configure::read('debug')) {
                    Log::error(json_encode($userMetadataPrivateKey->getErrors()));
                }
                $msg = __('The OpenPGP key data is not valid.');
                throw new ValidationException($msg, $userMetadataPrivateKey, $metadataPrivateKeysTable);
            }
        } catch (Exception $exception) {
            $msg = $exception->getMessage() . ' ';
            $msg .= __('The data could not be validated.') . ' ';
            $msg .= __('Metadata key could not be shared with user id: {0}.', $user->id);
            throw new MetadataKeyShareException($msg, 500, $exception);
        }

        // Save private key entity for the user
        try {
            $metadataPrivateKeysTable->save($userMetadataPrivateKey, ['checkRules' => false]);

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