What does NTSTATUS 0xC0000016 (STATUS_MORE_PROCESSING_REQUIRED) mean?

STATUS_MORE_PROCESSING_REQUIRED

IRP completion has been deliberately paused

In a WDM completion routine, this status tells the I/O manager to stop unwinding completion through the remaining driver stack. The driver returning it now owns the next action: wait, inspect results, reuse or free a driver-allocated IRP, or later call IoCompleteRequest for an original IRP.

It must not be treated as an ordinary error stored blindly in Irp->IoStatus.Status. It is a completion-routine control value. Returning it without a clear ownership path leaks or stalls the IRP; completing or freeing the IRP and then allowing normal completion creates a double-completion bug.

What to inspect

• Record which completion routine stopped unwinding and who owns the IRP after it returns.
• Preserve and propagate pending state according to Irp->PendingReturned.
• Do not touch an IRP after IoCompleteRequest has made it inaccessible.
• Verify that every stop-completion branch eventually frees or resumes completion exactly once.

References

• Microsoft Open Specifications: NTSTATUS values
• Microsoft WDK: Different ways of handling IRPs
• Microsoft WDK: How to complete an IRP in a dispatch routine
• Microsoft WDK: IoMarkIrpPending

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