You can get this error when bringing cpio from a foreign system, because magic numbers on the remote box do not match local magic numbers. Or the file you are loading is bad or was bad to start with.
use the cpio -k option to skip header checking.
magic number example
#!/bin/something
The #! is a unversal magic number on line one, the first two bytes of the file. It means
this is a script
exec is expected to invoke the "/bin/something" as an interpreter. /bin/something is not part of the magic number.