internal_error
internal_error (80) is sent when an internal error unrelated to the peer or the correctness of the protocol made it impossible to continue the TLS handshake or session. The sender encountered an unexpected condition – memory exhaustion, a failed system call, or an unhandled exception in the TLS library.
Alert Code
80
Level
Fatal
Standard
RFC 8446
Description
internal_error is the TLS equivalent of HTTP 500. It is intentionally vague to avoid leaking implementation details. Common causes: the TLS library ran out of memory during key generation, a random number generator failed, a required system call returned an unexpected error, or an implementation bug triggered an unhandled code path. The recipient cannot determine the cause from the alert alone – check the sender's logs for details.
Common Causes
- –TLS library out of memory during handshake
- –Random number generator failure during key generation
- –Unhandled exception in TLS implementation
- –File descriptor limit reached on the server
- –Certificate or key loading failed at handshake time