What does Windows error code 24 (ERROR_BAD_LENGTH) mean?

Status / error code:		Category:

Constant name:
Source:		Operating System:
Description: The command or data block has a length that the target cannot accept.

Could be also:
Constant	Type	OS
KERN_MEMORY_DATA_MOVED	Kern return	Mac
ippStsNoOperationInDll	Intel Ipp Status	Any
EMFILE	errno	Any
REFERENCE_BY_POINTER	BugCheck Code	Windows

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ERROR_CRC	ERROR_SEEK

ERROR_BAD_LENGTH

The supplied length does not match the operation

ERROR_BAD_LENGTH is returned when a program issues a command whose declared size is invalid for the receiving API, device, or structure. It can expose byte-versus-element mistakes, incorrect packing, truncated requests, or use of a structure version unsupported by the driver.

Validation points

Compare the input and output sizes with the exact function prototype.
Use sizeof on the structure object, not on a pointer.
Check architecture-dependent fields and explicit packing directives.
Guard additions and multiplications used to calculate variable payload sizes.

Recovery

Rebuild the request with the documented size and initialize any structure-length member. Do not blindly enlarge the buffer: some interfaces require an exact length rather than a minimum. If the error appears only on one Windows version, review the versioned structure contract.

References

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