"Invalid Elf Header" When Using the Nodejs "Ref" Module on Aws Lambda

I've just uploaded a zip to AWS Lambda which included the "ref" (), which is needed to validate an iOS Game Center authentication token (How to authenticate Game Center User from 3rd party node.js server).

Unfortunately invoking it results in the "invalid ELF header" error,

{
  "errorMessage": "/var/task/node_modules/ref/build/Release/binding.node: invalid ELF header",
  "errorType": "Error",
  "stackTrace": [
    "Module.load (module.js:356:32)",
    "Function.Module._load (module.js:312:12)",
    "Module.require (module.js:364:17)",
    "require (module.js:380:17)",
    "bindings (/var/task/node_modules/ref/node_modules/bindings/bindings.js:76:44)",
    "Object.<anonymous> (/var/task/node_modules/ref/lib/ref.js:5:47)",
    "Module._compile (module.js:456:26)",
    "Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:474:10)",
    "Module.load (module.js:356:32)",
    "Function.Module._load (module.js:312:12)"
  ]
}

This has been developed on a 64bit Macbook Pro running Yosemite which has no problem running the code locally. Googling around for "invalid ELF header" has yielded little to know relevant results and I'm really not sure where to go from here. Would I be better asking this in a node.js area, or is this the relevant area, because it might be an issue with the platform?

1

5 Answers

This happens when you build on one architecture and then attempt to use the same built addon on a different architecture (or platform in some cases).

According to this page, addons may have to be compiled against an Amazon Linux image on EC2 in order for the compiled addons to be usable on their Lambda service.

2

This doesn't apply exactly to your question, but in case anyone stumbles across this when using AWS Elastic Beanstalk, it could be a result of uploading the node_modules/ directory along with everything else, so you need to force it to ignore the file.

.ebignore

node_modules/
2

For those Developers porting JS to TypeScript on Lambda, ensure ALL dependancies are imported, not required:

import $ from "cheerio";

NOT

const $ = require("cheerio");

Here is the answer to your question that I found on Reddit:

[SOLVED BY JeffGebhart]

Then SSH into EC2 instance running Amazon Linux 2.

  • Install npm with nvm and docker and run
docker pull lambci/lambda
  • run
mkdir LambdaFunction
  • run
npm init

and initialize everything.

  • then you need to be in that folder and run
docker run --rm -v "$PWD":/var/task lambci/lambda:build-nodejs12.x 
npm install <packages you need> 

and it will build prover native modules in node_modules. Now you can extract all files to your PC or to your AWS.

Again, for anyone close to tears on this issue, try individually packaging your functions:

serverless.ts /.yml

Blockquote

  package: {
    individually: true   
},

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Marcus Vance

Marcus Vance

Cybersecurity & Digital Privacy Researcher

Marcus Vance is a cybersecurity auditor and technology writer dedicated to educating the public about online safety, data privacy regulations, enterprise security, and emerging cyber threats.

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