What does Windows error code 8254 (ERROR_DS_FILTER_UNKNOWN) mean?

Status / error code:		Category:

Constant name:
Source:		Operating System:
Description: The LDAP server could not recognize the search filter supplied by the client.

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ERROR_DS_DECODING_ERROR	ERROR_DS_PARAM_ERROR

ERROR_DS_FILTER_UNKNOWN

ERROR_DS_FILTER_UNKNOWN (0x0000203E) is an Active Directory Domain Services LDAP result. The LDAP server could not recognize the search filter supplied by the client.

What to check

Validate parentheses, operators, attribute names, escaping, and extensible-match syntax in the filter.
Start with a simple equality filter and add clauses one at a time.
Confirm that every attribute in the filter exists in the schema available on the target directory server.

Useful command

Get-ADObject -LDAPFilter "(objectClass=user)" -SearchBase "DC=<domain>,DC=<tld>"

Microsoft: AD DS LDAP operations · Microsoft: Get-ADObject · Microsoft: LDAP ETW tracing

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