What does HRESULT 0x80092003 (CRYPT_E_FILE_ERROR) mean?

 
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CRYPT_E_FILE_ERROR

A file read or write used by a cryptographic operation failed. The cryptographic object may be valid; the immediate cause can be a path, permissions, sharing, storage, or I/O problem.

What to check for CRYPT_E_FILE_ERROR

  • Record the exact file path, account identity, and operation before retrying.
  • Check available space, ACLs, file locks, and whether a removable or network location was lost.
  • Separate file access diagnostics from certificate or signature validation diagnostics.

Microsoft: Managing certificates with certificate stores

Microsoft: CryptMsgClose

Diagnostic interpretation of CRYPT_E_FILE_ERROR

CRYPT_E_FILE_ERROR has the HRESULT value 0x80092003. AllStat records the condition as “An error occurred while reading or writing to a file.”. For CRYPT_E_FILE_ERROR, in practice, interpret that wording at the boundary owned by cryptography, certificate, trust, or key-provider processing, rather than treating the value as a generic Windows message.

Evidence to capture for CRYPT_E_FILE_ERROR

  • Record the exact COM method or Windows API, its input object, the calling thread, and the full 0x80092003 value before a wrapper converts it to an exception or Boolean result.
  • Capture any IErrorInfo text, activity identifier, event-log entry, and subsystem trace that mentions CRYPT_E_FILE_ERROR or the crypt / file operation.
  • For CRYPT_E_FILE_ERROR, check the documented return contract of the specific API because the same HRESULT can require different recovery in different interfaces.

Retry and recovery for CRYPT_E_FILE_ERROR

Retry CRYPT_E_FILE_ERROR only when the owning API documents a transient state or after the condition described as “An error occurred while reading or writing to a file.” has changed. For CRYPT_E_FILE_ERROR, configuration, policy, format, and authorization failures normally require correction first; an immediate loop can hide the original call site and add secondary errors.


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