"Exec format error" bugs

[Reinhard Tartler]

another pattern of bugs I've encountered end with "Exec format
errors". Normally I would expect that if someone tried to execute and
amd64 binary on a i386 system. However, this does not seem to be the
case e.g. in this bug:

https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dirac/+bug/482413

Moreover, googling shows that this is not a that uncommon problem (about
1670 hits for me):

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=dpkg+"Exec+format+error"

I wonder where this is caused from. A possible explanation would be that
the download was corrupted in some way. However apt is supposed to
cryptographically verify the integrity of downloaded archive, so either
there is some serious problem with apt here, or there must be some other
explanation for this pattern.

-- 
Gruesse/greetings,
Reinhard Tartler, KeyID 945348A4