NTSTATUS 0xC000000B (STATUS_INVALID_CID): meaning and diagnosis

Status / error code:		Category:

Constant name:
Source:		Operating System:
Description: The CLIENT_ID supplied to a native process or thread operation does not identify a valid target.

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STATUS_BAD_INITIAL_PC	STATUS_TIMER_NOT_CANCELED

STATUS_INVALID_CID

The native client process or thread ID is invalid

Native process and thread APIs can identify a target through a CLIENT_ID containing process and thread identifiers. STATUS_INVALID_CID means that identifier pair cannot be resolved for the requested operation. The target may have exited, the IDs may be mismatched, or the caller may have reused stale diagnostic data.

Process and thread IDs are not permanent identities and can eventually be reused. Record the IDs together with creation time or an already-open handle when correlating asynchronous work. For operations such as ZwOpenProcess, verify that the client ID was built for the correct target instead of passing a thread identifier in the process field.

What to inspect

Capture both CLIENT_ID fields and the native API that consumed them.
Check whether the target exited between enumeration and the open operation.
Use stable handles or creation-time correlation when delayed work can outlive the original ID.

References

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