WHM and cPanel login pages have legacy themes

Symptoms

When loading the WHM login page, it displays the legacy login page.

The following messages may also appear in the cPanel error log:

CONFIG_TEXT: undef error - Cpanel::Exception::IO::FileOpenError/(XID cgh44m) The system failed to open the file “/var/cpanel/public_contact/root” for reading because of an error: Permission denied

CONFIG_TEXT: Failed to show template “login” in login theme “cpanel” (); falling back to legacy login. at /usr/local/cpanel/Cpanel/Server.pm line 2618.

CONFIG_TEXT: Failed to show template “whm_logout” in login theme “cpanel” (); falling back to legacy login. at /usr/local/cpanel/Cpanel/Server.pm line 2618.

CONFIG_TEXT: [2026-05-29 20:08:22 -0400] info [whostmgrd] show_template.stor lacked output with exit code: 1 at /usr/local/cpanel/Cpanel/Server.pm line 1791.

Cause

The template.stor data is corrupted or returns an invalid response.

It can be caused by updating to cPanel version 11.134.0.30 or 11.36.0.14, where the public_contact directory /var/cpanel/public_contact/ is an empty directory.

This can also occur after removing resellers that has a public_contact set in WHM's customization interface. After removing the reseller, the empty directory can cause the issue.

This issue is being investigated by our developers in case ID CPANEL-53688.

Resolution

1. Log in to SSH as root or use the WHM Terminal.

2. Rename the following file:

   # mv -v /var/cpanel/public_contact{,.$(date +%s)}

3. Run the following command to resynchronize the cPanel installation data:

   # /scripts/upcp --sync