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STATUS_IMAGE_MACHINE_TYPE_MISMATCH
The image machine field does not match the loader context
PE images declare a machine type in the COFF header, such as x86, x64, ARM, or ARM64. This warning appears when an image is structurally recognizable but its declared architecture is not the one expected by the process or loader. It is commonly encountered while loading a DLL, inspecting an image as data, or crossing an emulation boundary.
Renaming the file or copying a different runtime beside it does not correct an architecture mismatch. The executable, every load-time dependency, injected module, and in-process plug-in must be compatible with the process architecture unless a documented emulation or out-of-process boundary is involved.
What to inspect
- Read the COFF Machine field with dumpbin or llvm-readobj and record the architecture of the host process.
- Inspect the complete dependency chain because one transitive DLL of the wrong architecture is sufficient to fail loading.
- Check whether file-system redirection or an incorrect search path selected a similarly named module from another runtime.
- Use an out-of-process helper for components that cannot be rebuilt for the caller architecture.
References
- Microsoft Open Specifications: NTSTATUS values
- Microsoft: PE and COFF format
- LLVM: llvm-readobj COFF inspection
- Microsoft: LoadLibrary
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