What does HRESULT 0x8001013A (CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER) mean?

CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER

ACL access-denied and access-allowed entries are in the wrong order

CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER is HRESULT 2147549498 (0x8001013A) from winerror.h. AllStat describes it as “Not all the DENY_ACCESS ACEs are arranged in front of the GRANT_ACCESS ACEs in the stream.” In the COM IAccessControl, DCOM client identity, trustee translation, token inspection, security descriptor, ACL, or serialization workflow, the code identifies a specific failure boundary and should not be replaced by a generic COM exception.

A generic “operation failed” message is insufficient for CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER because the recovery decision depends on the exact lifecycle, security, marshaling, or state condition.

Decisive interpretation boundary

Before choosing recovery, verify that ACE type, inheritance, object-specific scope, trustee, and original order are preserved for safe canonicalization. That boundary prevents CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER from being misclassified as corruption, network failure, or a reason for an unsafe automatic retry.

For CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER, also confirm that all observed objects, tokens, buffers, proxies, metadata files, or ACLs belong to the current operation generation and were not retained from an earlier attempt.

Where it is encountered

• CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER can be returned during IAccessControl initialization, access checks, owner/trustee processing, and serialized ACL persistence. For CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER, record the interface, method, component version, thread, apartment, process, and correlation ID.
• CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER can be returned during server-side DCOM impersonation, client blanket inspection, token and SID lookup. For CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER, record the interface, method, component version, thread, apartment, process, and correlation ID.
• CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER can be returned during security descriptor construction, DACL canonicalization, file-backed policy storage, or legacy NetAccess migration. For CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER, record the interface, method, component version, thread, apartment, process, and correlation ID.

The immediate focus for CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER is a serialized or constructed DACL that is not in canonical order, especially deny ACEs placed after grants they should override. Keep CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER attached to that operation; the same numeric severity outside the owning API does not supply enough context.

Diagnostic sequence

• Capture the raw unsigned value 0x8001013A and symbolic name CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER before a language projection, exception wrapper, or generic COM helper replaces it.
• Identify the exact interface, method, callback, activation request, metadata query, access-control operation, or marshaling boundary that returned CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER.
• Reconstruct the operation timeline for CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER, including object creation, thread or apartment initialization, security setup, callbacks, mutations, shutdown, and cleanup.
• Prove the decisive condition: ACE type, inheritance, object-specific scope, trustee, and original order are preserved for safe canonicalization.
• Inspect every output parameter, handle, interface pointer, token, SID, ACL, stream, buffer, server-side object, or asynchronous result produced before CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER.
• Reproduce CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER with the smallest safe input, change only the suspected precondition, and verify that both the HRESULT and postcondition change as predicted.

Evidence and telemetry

• Preserve ACE sequence with type and flags for CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER.
• Preserve explicit versus inherited entries for CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER.
• Preserve trustee SIDs and masks for CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER.
• Preserve effective-access test tokens for CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER.
• Preserve canonicalized ACL hash for CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER.

For CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER, also record UTC time, process and thread IDs, apartment type, component version, security or package identity where relevant, and a correlation ID. For CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER, use hashes, lengths, GUIDs, and SID strings rather than logging confidential payloads or credentials.

Correct handling and recovery

Rebuild the ACL using security APIs that produce canonical order, then verify effective access for representative tokens before applying it.

Repeat the operation after CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER only when the documented precondition, identity, apartment, object generation, buffer, or configuration has changed.

Difference from nearby HRESULTs

CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER is ordering; CO_E_DECODEFAILED means the ACL stream cannot be decoded reliably at all.

The distinction around CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER should be represented explicitly in control flow and operational dashboards.

Lifetime, retry, and cleanup rules

After CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER, determine whether the current object, interface pointer, call context, token, stream, metadata reader, asynchronous operation, or access-control instance remains valid. For CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER, release only resources owned by the failing attempt, cancel callbacks through their documented mechanism, and avoid double close, double commit, repeated activation, or replay of a non-idempotent remote method.

The retry policy for CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER should state the trigger, maximum attempts, cancellation owner, and reconciliation step for effects that may have completed elsewhere.

Developer and administrator guidance

When CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER crosses native, managed, scripting, RPC, or WinRT projection boundaries, preserve the unsigned 32-bit HRESULT. Unit tests for CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER should assert the code-specific postcondition and resource ownership, not merely that an exception was thrown.

After CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER, avoid broad permission grants or system-wide resets unless code-specific evidence proves a global configuration problem. Define who owns retry, cancellation, cleanup, policy changes, package repair, and user-facing messaging for CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER.

Practical scenario

A policy editor appends a deny ACE after an existing allow ACE for the same user. Canonical rebuild moves explicit denies first and regression tests confirm denial.

A regression test should reproduce CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER, assert the raw HRESULT and all relevant outputs, then correct only the decisive condition and verify the intended success or neighboring failure result.

References

• Microsoft: IAccessControl — official Microsoft documentation relevant to CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER.
• Microsoft: IAccessControl::IsAccessAllowed — official Microsoft documentation relevant to CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER.
• Microsoft: AccessCheck — official Microsoft documentation relevant to CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER.
• Microsoft: LookupAccountSidW — official Microsoft documentation relevant to CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER.
• Microsoft: LookupAccountNameW — official Microsoft documentation relevant to CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER.
• Microsoft: access control lists — official Microsoft documentation relevant to CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER.
• Microsoft: canonical ACE order — official Microsoft documentation relevant to CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER.
• Microsoft: HRESULT values — official Microsoft documentation relevant to CO_E_ACESINWRONGORDER.

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