ruvnet/ruflo · error · Error

Header length extends beyond buffer

Error message

Header length extends beyond buffer

What it means

Thrown when headerStart + headerLen (the 4-byte length read from the preamble at offset 8) would read past the buffer minus the footer. The preamble's length field is inconsistent with the file size — a corrupt or truncated image.

Source

Thrown at v3/@claude-flow/cli/src/appliance/rvfa-signing.ts:183

  headerEnd: number;
  sectionData: Buffer;
  footer: Buffer;
} {
  if (buf.length < PREAMBLE_SIZE + SHA256_SIZE) {
    throw new Error('Buffer too small to be a valid RVFA file');
  }

  const magic = buf.subarray(0, 4).toString('ascii');
  if (magic !== 'RVFA') {
    throw new Error(`Invalid RVFA magic: expected "RVFA", got "${magic}"`);
  }

  const headerLen = buf.readUInt32LE(8);
  const headerStart = PREAMBLE_SIZE;
  const headerEnd = headerStart + headerLen;

  if (headerEnd > buf.length - SHA256_SIZE) {
    throw new Error('Header length extends beyond buffer');
  }

  const headerJson = buf.subarray(headerStart, headerEnd).toString('utf-8');
  let header: Record<string, unknown>;
  try {
    header = JSON.parse(headerJson) as Record<string, unknown>;
  } catch {
    throw new Error('Failed to parse RVFA header JSON');
  }

  const footer = buf.subarray(buf.length - SHA256_SIZE);
  const sectionData = buf.subarray(headerEnd, buf.length - SHA256_SIZE);

  return { header, headerStart, headerEnd, sectionData, footer };
}

/**
 * Compute the signing digest for an RVFA file.

View on GitHub (pinned to 6b01dc5a68)

Solutions

1. Re-acquire the RVFA file from a trusted source.
2. On the producer side, cross-check the declared header length against actual bytes written.
3. Treat the image as unrecoverable; do not retry on the same bytes.

const headerLen = buf.readUInt32LE(8);
if (PREAMBLE_SIZE + headerLen > buf.length - SHA256_SIZE) {
  throw new Error('RVFA header length inconsistent with file size; image is corrupt or truncated');
}

When it happens

Trigger: The declared header length exceeds the available bytes between preamble and footer: truncated file, partial overwrite, or a bit-flip in the length field.

Common situations: Partial download; file truncated by a size-limited transfer; producer wrote a wrong length field.

Related errors

• Failed to parse RVFA header JSON
• RVFP header magic mismatch
• Section "${id}" exceeds buffer bounds
• Buffer too small to be a valid RVFA file
• KV cache file too small

AI-assisted analysis of ruvnet/ruflo@6b01dc5a68 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a2f4fd591f7521f6. Report an issue: GitHub.