Chain Of Hadeeth
That’s certainly a possibility. It doesn’t even need to be a deliberate forgery, but it could be just a misunderstanding on a narrator’s part. Ilm-ul-rijal helps in this difficulty, however, there’s no way to reach certitude. That’s one of the many reasons why all narrations regardless of their categorization must be understood in the light of the Quran and the Sunnah.