Mailman (2.2.0) is severely broken
Mailman is broken since the last cPanel update a few days ago:
- List archives are broken
- encoding / decoding of non-ascii characters are broken
- daily digests are no longer working
It is just a nightmare...
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Been pretty quiet with Mailman updates.... we still have 18 open support tickets with our customers who are waiting for their Mailman mailing lists to work again. We have two customers that we know of that have left us over this issue. I have sorted and researched the open cases we have into the following issues, do we know if more work is being done? Do I need to open cPanel tickets for each of these?
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1. The "personalize" setting under "Non-digest options" must be "No". If the value is set to "Yes" or to "Full Personalization", the emails disappear once they reach mailman. No shunt files, no error logs, no trace.
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2. Every single Mailman list info page is broken. You receive the vague "Bug in Mailman version 2.2.0
We're sorry, we hit a bug!". This is critical, because most of our customers direct their users to this page to subscribe to their mailing lists.-----------------------------------------------------------------
3. As an admin, when viewing the "Held Messages", clicking on "view the details" takes you to a URL of /3rdparty/mailman/admindb/listname_domainname.com which shows the "Bug in Mailman" error. Possibly related to #2 above.
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4. Archives are broken during the time our servers (set to stable) had 126.0.x and before 126.0.16 was rolled out on 4/24/25. All archives for March seemed fine and May seem fine. For April, it shows the message count but has no messages. Here's one example:
Starting: None
Ending: Wed Apr 30 20:45:05 CDT 2025
Messages: 93Last message date: Wed Apr 30 20:45:05 CDT 2025
Archived on: Wed Apr 30 20:45:12 CDT 2025-----------------------------------------------------------------
5. Non-digest emails contain Unicode issues. It appears the quoted‑printable UTF‑8 byte sequence for a “right” single‑quote (U+2019), rather than the ASCII apostrophe was used. In UTF‑8 the character ’ is encoded as three bytes: E2 80 99. In a quoted‑printable stream those show up as =E2=80=99 if the decoder never translates them back into the Unicode character. Here's what our customer's list is seeing:
Non-Digest: I=E2=80=99l=l
Digest: I'llI suspect mail clients, like Microsoft Outlook, that switch apostrophes and quotes to their "smart quotes" (angled left/right) are the best ways to recreate this issue.
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Issues #2 and #3 a really critical and need to be treated with high priority. Issue #1 can be worked around by disabling personalization, and issues #4 and #5 are primarily an inconvenience.
We do have one customer that claims their list is just completely broken. I tried all the workarounds and tried rebuilding his list from scratch. As soon as I import all of their members, the list stops responding to incoming messages to send. Hoping for another round of Mailman bug fixes before trying to debug that one further and open a cPanel ticket for.
Thanks!
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GBTim - let's see if I can help a bit with the status on some of these.
"Do I need to open cPanel tickets for each of these?" - The answer to that is always yes! It's always best to bring things to our attention as every ticket submitted gets even more eyes on the issue.
1 - I'm actually not seeing anything on my end for this particular issue.
2 - This is a known issue: https://support.cpanel.net/hc/en-us/articles/31500801749143-Mailing-list-listinfo-interface-fails-to-load-TypeError-Unicode-objects-must-be-encoded-before-hashing
I know it's resolved in version 130, which is still in testing, but I've asked the team if they are going to backport it to other versions.
3 - This got fixed as part of a larger project so there isn't a specific update in the changelog showing it, but this should be resolved in all versions of 126 at this time: https://support.cpanel.net/hc/en-us/articles/30750018242327-v126-Mailman-unable-to-view-held-messages-for-moderation
4 - It seems like this one is resolved since you said May is working well now
5 - This was resolved on April 24th as part of CPANEL-46529, assuming I am checking the correct digest output - https://docs.cpanel.net/changelogs/126-change-log/
I know all of those answers aren't ideal, but I hope it helps!
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Thank you cPRex. As you suggested, I did open tickets for these issues. In case it is useful, they are:
Issue #1 - 95710651: Mailman Personalize setting breaks list
Issue #2 - 95710645: Mailman List Info page does not work
Issue #3 - 95710647: Mailman View Details of Moderation not working
Issue #4 - No ticket opened since it appears to be working after last cPanel update, even though archives during the broken period are still broken.
Issue #5 - 95710652: UTF8 encodings appearing in Mailman non-digest emails
Really hoping to see most of these fixed in the cPanel update!
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Hi everyone
When I try to subscribe to a created mailing list in CPanel directly from my e-mail-address, where I send an e-mail to the address for subscribing (e.g. testliste1-join@example.com), I fine first receive the e-mail about that some has requested a subscribtion for my e-mail-address.
But when I after that try to confirm my subscribtion via e-mail, or with the link there is in the e-mail that I receive from Mailman, I see the following error:
Invalid confirmation string or Bad confirmation string
Invalid confirmation string: and the string number.
Note that confirmation strings expire approximately 3 days after the initial request. They also expire if the request has already been handled in some way. If your confirmation has expired, please try to re-submit your request. Otherwise, re-enter your confirmation string.---
Do the following to reproduce:
1. Create an mailing list in Mailman via CPanel
2. Try to subscribe via e-mail to the mailing list
3. When you now will confirm the subscribtion you see the error.
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Is there also a bug in Mailman here in connection with CPanel, or what can be wrong?
I Using CPanel version 126.0.18.
Very thanks in advance for your answer and have a nice day.
Regards,
Anders
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Hi again
Note to my observation above:
The same happen when I try to unsubscribe from a mailing list via e-mail. I fine receive the first e-mail where Mailman ask me if I will unsubscribe, but when I try to confirm my unsubscription where I answer the e-mail from Mailman that I first receive, and also try to click on the link there is in the first e-mail, I also see the error about Invalid confirmation string or Bad confirmation string.
What ever that I try I as I end user not can confirme subscribtion and unsubscribtion via e-mail or web page on mailing list created in Mailman..
Regards,
Anders
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Anders Boholdt-Petersen - I actually don't have any active cases for "invalid confirmation string" - would you be able to submit a ticket on this issue so we can examine that on the affected server?
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I believe I am having a problem similar to time #5 above. The the text getting sent out in the emails is sometimes adding a few "=" characters followed by numbers, but sometimes is absolute garbage and totally illegible. The emails are going into the archives just fine, and digest versions do not have an issue.
The version being used is 126.0.19. This fix was supposedly applied in 126.0.16 in April(?).
Am I seeing a different issue, or is the issue not fixed as advertised?
Any thoughts and assistance would be appreciated.
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Bob England - I believe your specific issue is here:
as part of case CPANEL-47499. That one hasn't been resolved just yet as it's only been open for just over a week.
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Hi cPRex, I see that the release tier is now 128.0.9 and it's installed on my server, but the issue with the Listinfo pages is not fixed. I'm assuming it was supposed to be fixed?
OS: AlmaLinux v8.10.0 STANDARD xen hvm0 -
Jim Henderson - the next build of 126 and 128 will include all the fixes we currently have. That build is getting created today so it should release this week. The goal is to have these in place in 128 before that reaches Stable.
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Ok, thanks!
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Hi again
1. Regarding my issue with "Invalid confirmation string" when I as a end user try to subscribe to a mailing list in Mailman, my host now has upgraded CPanel from version 126 to version 128. After that the issue is fixed.
2. How and where can I report issues in CPanel as a ticket if I not have a licens to CPanel?
Regards, and thanks for a good work,
Anders
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1 - Glad to hear it!
2 - You would contact your license provider for any issues with the product as they should be your first line of support. If necessary, they would escalate the issue to us. I you have reproduction steps for a certain problem you can always send them to me on the Forum here and I can attempt to reproduce. However, the Mailman issues were mostly dependent on existing mailing lists and configuration settings, so access to the affected machine would be required.0 -
cPRex
Thanks for your response, but CPANEL-47499 is not the issue we are seeing. We are seeing random "=" signs followed by a number being inserted, and these insertions are not involving the replacing quotes.
Sometimes it replaces the whole message with seemingly random characters. The following, for example, is an email from a mailing list received yesterday:
SSBhbSByZXNlbmRpbmcgYSBtZXNzYWdlIEkgc2VudCBlYXJsaWVyIGFzIGl0IHJlYWxseSB0b29r
IGEgaGl0IGZyb20gdGhlIG1haWxtYW4gc2VydmVyLiAgSG9wZWZ1bGx5IGl0IGNvbWVzIGluIGJl
dHRlciB0aGlzIHRpbWUgLi4uDQoNCglUb255IGFuZCBEb25uYSBhcmUgY2hlY2tpbmcgaW4gYWdh
aW4gd2l0aCBob3N0aW5nIHRoZSBUdXJuaXAgZmVzdGl2YWw7IHRoaXMgeWVhciBvbiBTdW5kYXks
IEp1bHkgMjAuIA0KDQoJQW5vdGhlciBub3QtdG8tYmUgbWlzc2VkIHN3YXJlZSAhDQoNCglPbmNl
IHRoZSBpbml0aWFsIGV4Y2l0ZW1lbnQgc2V0dGxlcyBkb3duLCB3ZeKAmWxsIHBvbGwgYXR0ZW5
k
ZWVzIGZvciB3aG8gYnJpbmdzIHdoYXQgZm9yIHRoZSBwb3QgbHVjay4gDQoNCkJvYiBFbmdsYW5k
DQo=The list archives show the original message was received OK, so the character change seems to occur during the sending of the email to the list.
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Bob England - thanks for the additional details. Are there any specific errors in the logs around that time? I may actually not have a case that matches this behavior from what I am seeing.
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The "=C3=BC" and similar inserts are encoded non-ASCII characters which werenot properly handled by Mailman.
Your cited "illegible text" is base64-encoded text, which was not properly decoded by your mail program - probably because the "instruction" about the encoding was missing in the message which Mailman sent.
Below is your decoded text (I used this page to decode it):
I am resending a message I sent earlier as it really took a hit from the mailman server. Hopefully it comes in better this time ...
Tony and Donna are checking in again with hosting the Turnip festival; this year on Sunday, July 20.
Another not-to-be missed swaree !
Once the initial excitement settles down, we’ll poll attendees for who brings what for the pot luck.
Bob England
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The only thing I have that matches up is that CPANEL-46529 which I can confirm has been released, so we'll likely need to see a ticket from this specific system to determine the cause.
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Thanks cPRex - I agree it was very (very) similar to CPANEL-46529. I can't do a ticket as I am not a directly paying customer, so I'll get our provider to submit a ticket.
Christian Busser - thanks for your note. Your decoded version is exactly what was sent. I can assure you it was not "illegible text", but rather illegible text. If I understand your note correctly it is a mailman issue rather than a mail service provider issue(?).
Thank you both for your quick responses. Very much appreciated.
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At some point, the foreign characters or the whole message are encoded. I do not know what criteria are applied in this regard - some "simple" messages without any forign characters are encoded in base64, some are not. This may happen already within your mail client or somewhere when a server needs to handle the message. The instance which encodes the message needs to supply information on how to decode the message again to make it legible when it is opened in the receiving mail client or webmail application.
In the examples you mentioned, this information is somehow either lost, stripped or not added to the message so that your mail client / webmail application just shows what it receives and does not bother to decode the message.
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Thanks Christian Buser, I appreciate the explanation. If I understand correctly, it sounds like Mailman receives the message OK, stores it in the archives, then encodes it before sending out to the group but forgets to add the "decoder ring" metric to the outgoing email.
This all started a month or two ago.
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It seems that something new has surfaced for us since upgrading to version 128.
This may not be the same as others reported regarding "Invalid confirmation string" as they claim that the issue was fixed in version 128, but in our case, we did not see this until upgrading to 128.
At any rate, users report this error now, when attempting to confirm their subscription request.
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Jim Henderson - are you able to create a ticket for that issue?
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I can file a ticket.
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Has this issue, CPANEL-46537 - News Gateway sync, been fixed yet?
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kenrbnsn - yes, I show that was fixed on April 30.
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We have been having the same issue Bob England reported. For us, we've narrowed it down to when an email is sent to a mailing list from a cell phone the delivered message is messed up. Looking forward to this being fixed as it's been affecting us for a little while now.
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We've also been having the same encoding issue as Bob England and Ken A, for several months now. Both we and our provider had assumed this was covered by CPANEL-46529 but apparently not? Has it been logged as a defect that we can track? (I can't raise a ticket as I'm not a direct customer).
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Our service provider phoned to determine what the problem was and when it will be fixed, and was told NOT to submit a ticket. Should I be concerned that our issue cannot be fixed?
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Bob England - "who" exactly told you not to make a ticket?
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"Who"? Not sure. When our service provider phoned for support, he was told not to submit a ticket by whoever at c-panel support he was talking to.
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