NightCoop guide

Key verification failed

Last checked: 2026-11-04 · Official version: v0.2.0-beta (2026-11-02) · Protocol 164 · Free · Windows 10/11 64-bit · Up to 8 players · RED4ext only (no CET) · Phantom Liberty not required

English wording in the guides: “The server failed the key check.” The Russian line people paste is «Сервер не прошёл проверку ключей», and a related search says the link with the host failed the key check. The server window can also say the key does not match the fingerprint, while the link still shows as encrypted.

Encrypted is not the same as verified

The audit of the October builds calls out a direct IP session that is encrypted and still unauthenticated. A hub is different: you are supposed to pin it with a fingerprint so the client can tell a replaced relay from the one your friend runs. The fingerprint is the short id that follows a hash mark on the address line, written address#fingerprint. If you omit it, the client has no pin to compare. The hub README is explicit that a bare address cannot authenticate the hub.

Three ways the pin breaks

• A typo in the fingerprint. One wrong character fails the compare.
• The hub owner generated a new key. Every saved pin from before that reset is now a different server, even if the hostname did not change.
• The address points at a different machine than the one that printed the fingerprint. Ask the owner for the new pin and paste the whole address#fingerprint line again.

After you paste it, the window should read verified. If it only says encrypted, stop and ask for the pin again. Do not keep playing on an unpinned relay and call it the same hub. Host and guest both need the corrected line if they added the server by hand. Players who stay on Auto: nearest are using the project’s own relays, and this page is about a custom hub, not about those.

The current guides document the fingerprint check. Evidence: 2 independent publishers (NightCoop project documentation and the independent audit). This row is not a claim that 0.2.0 inherited every medium finding from the October audit. The fingerprint rule itself is in the current hub guide.