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STATUS_INVALID_SIGNATURE
The signature does not authenticate the supplied content
This status reports a verification failure, not merely the absence of a signature. The verifier found signature material but could not validate it for the content and trust inputs supplied to the operation. Common causes include a changed payload, the wrong public key or certificate, an unsupported parameter set, or a mismatch between the bytes signed and the bytes later verified.
A successful hash of the file does not resolve the problem unless that exact hash and encoding are what the signature covers. Containers and signed documents can apply canonicalization, transforms, detached references, or metadata rules before verification. Diagnostics must preserve the original input and identify the component that selected the verification policy.
What to inspect
- Record the signature algorithm, digest algorithm, key identifier, certificate chain, and provider used by the failing call.
- Compare the exact byte stream or canonical form used for signing with the one presented to verification.
- Check for truncation, line-ending conversion, reserialization, or metadata changes after the signature was created.
- Do not bypass verification or replace the trusted key merely to make the status disappear.
References
- Microsoft Open Specifications: NTSTATUS values
- Microsoft Windows SDK metadata: ntstatus.h
- W3C: XML Signature Syntax and Processing 1.1
- NIST SP 800-38D: GCM and authentication tags
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