| Previous | Next |
| ERROR_DS_LOCAL_ERROR | ERROR_DS_DECODING_ERROR |
ERROR_DS_ENCODING_ERROR
LDAP messages use ASN.1 structures encoded with BER
ERROR_DS_ENCODING_ERROR points to failure while converting an LDAP operation, control, or attribute value into its wire representation. LDAP protocol elements are ASN.1 values encoded with Basic Encoding Rules. Controls and several Active Directory-specific values contain another BER-encoded structure inside an octet string, so an apparently valid outer request can still contain malformed nested data.
Capture the operation before transmission and identify the first object that the client library cannot encode. Check ASN.1 choice tags, lengths, integer ranges, UTF-8 validity, and whether binary attribute values were mistakenly passed through a text conversion. For custom controls, encode the documented control-value structure rather than the whole LDAP message again. Reproducing the failure with a minimal request is more useful than retrying, because deterministic encoding errors are caused by the request shape or client-side memory, not transient directory availability.
Wire-format diagnostics
- LDAP operation and control OIDs.
- Raw value bytes before BER encoding.
- ASN.1 type and expected tag/length.
- Client library and API overload used.
References
- IETF RFC 4511: LDAP protocol encoding
- ITU-T X.690: BER encoding rules
- Microsoft: LDAPControl value and criticality fields
Looking for a different code? Search another status or error code.