HRESULT 0x800B0108 (CERT_E_MALFORMED): meaning and diagnosis

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CERT_E_MALFORMED means a certificate is missing or has an empty value for an important required field.

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CERT_E_ISSUERCHAINING	CERT_E_UNTRUSTEDROOT

CERT_E_MALFORMED

CERT_E_MALFORMED means that the certificate cannot satisfy normal validation because an important field is absent or empty, such as a subject or issuer name. Treat it as invalid certificate data rather than as a simple hostname mismatch.

Preserve and inspect the certificate

Record the certificate thumbprint and export a copy for PKI analysis if policy permits.
Check whether the certificate was truncated, incorrectly encoded, or generated by a nonconforming issuer.
Replace or reissue the certificate; changing client trust stores cannot supply a missing required field.

This result should be handled as a certificate-content failure, not by disabling chain validation.

Microsoft: certificate and trust return values

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