5

Each email that is generated by the shop web application is returning: Delivery status notification, invalid header: bad MIME

From looking at the error message it look like it is complaining about the HTML that is in the email although when viewing the source there doesn't look like a problem.

Your message WAS SUCCESSFULLY RELAYED to:
  <[email protected]>

This delivery report was generated by the program amavisd-new at host
example.com. Our internal reference code for your message is
20971-09/NNjaWqvFY5Qg

INVALID HEADER: BAD MIME HEADER SECTION OR BAD MIME STRUCTURE

  MIME error: error: couldn't parse head; error near:; Return ID: 1; Return
    Date: 11/09/2011

Return-Path: <[email protected]>
From: =?UTF-8?B?WW91ciBTdG9yZQ==?=<[email protected]>
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
X-Mailer: PHP/5.3.4
Subject: =?UTF-8?B?WW91ciBTdG9yZSAtIFJldHVybiBVcGRhdGUgMQ==?=



dsn_status

Reporting-MTA: dns; example.com
Received-From-MTA: smtp; example.com ([127.0.0.1])
Arrival-Date: Sun, 11 Sep 2011 18:54:40 +0100 (BST)

Original-Recipient: rfc822;[email protected]
Final-Recipient: rfc822;[email protected]
Action: delayed
Status: 2.0.0
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 250 2.6.0 Bad message, but will be delivered anyway
Last-Attempt-Date: Sun, 11 Sep 2011 18:54:40 +0100 (BST)
Final-Log-ID: 20971-09/NNjaWqvFY5Qg


header

Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: from example.com (cpc10-donc9-2-0-cust122.barn.cable.virginmedia.com [94.171.174.123])
    by example.com (iRedMail) with ESMTPSA id A84BE5E099
    for <[email protected]>; Sun, 11 Sep 2011 18:54:40 +0100 (BST)
To: [email protected]
Subject: =?UTF-8?B?WW91ciBTdG9yZSAtIFJldHVybiBVcGRhdGUgMQ==?=
X-PHP-Originating-Script: 0:mail.php
MIME-Version: 1.0
Date: Sun, 11 Sep 2011 17:54:40 +0000
From: =?UTF-8?B?WW91ciBTdG9yZQ==?=<[email protected]>
Reply-To: Your Store<[email protected]>
X-Mailer: PHP/5.3.4
Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="----=_NextPart_b45f3c386576f1955bb5338634f5047f"
Message-Id: <[email protected]>

Email Message source that causes the above error:

Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Delivered-To: [email protected]
Received: from localhost (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1])
    by example.com (iRedMail) with ESMTP id 4C03E5E09C
    for <[email protected]>; Sun, 11 Sep 2011 18:54:41 +0100 (BST)
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/simple; d=example.com;
     h=message-id:content-type:content-type:x-mailer:reply-to:from
    :from:date:date:mime-version:subject:subject:to; s=dkim; t=
    1315763680; x=1316627680; bh=18GKmsQjF86uG/PbhhDg2FY9o3H6chH8XZo
    4VFFN45k=; b=g4TbDzU8pWzeX7CdmCI/Sq8JjtPM6wTQIMqQ7dRclE0XqCVgEZ4
    OeQtpR1zApiV31RLu87k9QQF6a4mvCmr1N31auiq4u+AfxFW3DujSvDz5h3lSSf4
    vPVgHwzEBQbaue9VeZ0nPmHhrrJWojv5iMlfjUKIdNJkBuP9BF3plVgA=
X-Quarantine-ID: <NNjaWqvFY5Qg>
X-Amavis-Modified: Mail body modified (using disclaimer) -
    example.com
X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd at example.com
X-Amavis-Alert: BAD HEADER SECTION, MIME error: error: couldn't parse head;
    error near:; Return ID: 1; Return Date: 11/09/2011
X-Spam-Flag: NO
X-Spam-Score: -6.697
X-Spam-Level: 
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-6.697 tagged_above=-999 required=6.31
    tests=[ALL_TRUSTED=-10, AWL=-1.381, FROM_EXCESS_BASE64=1.984,
    HTML_MESSAGE=0.001, MISSING_MIME_HB_SEP=2.699] autolearn=disabled
Received: from example.com ([127.0.0.1])
    by localhost (example.com [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024)
    with ESMTP id NNjaWqvFY5Qg for <[email protected]>;
    Sun, 11 Sep 2011 18:54:40 +0100 (BST)
Received: from example.com (cpc10-donc9-2-0-cust122.barn.cable.virginmedia.com [94.171.174.123])
    by example.com (iRedMail) with ESMTPSA id A84BE5E099
    for <[email protected]>; Sun, 11 Sep 2011 18:54:40 +0100 (BST)
To: [email protected]
Subject: =?UTF-8?B?WW91ciBTdG9yZSAtIFJldHVybiBVcGRhdGUgMQ==?=
X-PHP-Originating-Script: 0:mail.php
MIME-Version: 1.0
Date: Sun, 11 Sep 2011 17:54:40 +0000
From: =?UTF-8?B?WW91ciBTdG9yZQ==?=<[email protected]>
Reply-To: Your Store<[email protected]>
X-Mailer: PHP/5.3.4
Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="----=_NextPart_b45f3c386576f1955bb5338634f5047f"
Message-Id: <[email protected]>

------=_NextPart_b45f3c386576f1955bb5338634f5047f
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_NextPart_b45f3c386576f1955bb5338634f5047f_alt"

------=_NextPart_b45f3c386576f1955bb5338634f5047f_alt
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Return ID: 1
Return Date: 11/09/2011

Your return has been updated to the following status:
Complete

The comments for your return are:

gsfdgf


g
fdgfdgfdgfd

Please reply to this email if you have any questions.

------=_NextPart_b45f3c386576f1955bb5338634f5047f_alt
Content-Type: text/html; charset="utf-8"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
    <title>Your Store</title>
    <style type="text/css">
        v\:* {
            behavior: url(#default#VML);
            display:inline-block;
        }
    </style>

</head>
<body bgcolor="#f5f5f5" style="margin:0; padding:0; background-color:#f5f5f5; color:#333333; font-size:12px; font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height:18px; width:100% !important;">

<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
    <tr>
        <td align="center">             
            <table width="660" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
                    <td id="main-bg" align="center" valign="middle" background="http://www.example.com/default/image/mail/body-repeat-white.gif" style="margin:0 auto; background-image:url('http://www.example.com/default/image/mail/body-repeat-white.gif'); background-repeat:repeat-y; width:660px; postion:relative;">
                        <!--[if gte mso 9]>
                        <v:background xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml">
                                   <v:fill type="solid" src="http://www.example.com/default/image/mail/body-repeat-white.gif" />
                        </v:background>
                        <![endif]-->
                        <table width="580" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="overflow:hidden; table-layout:fixed; width:580px; word-wrap:break-word;">
                            <tr>
                                <td id="header-bg" bgcolor="#515151" background="http://www.example.com/default/image/mail/head-bg.jpg" style="background-image:url("http://www.example.com/default/image/mail/head-bg.jpg"); background-repeat:no-repeat; background-color:#434343; font-size:30px; color:#ffffff;">
                                    <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="20">
                                    <tr>
                                        <td>
                                        <a href="http://localhost/opencart-1.5/" title="Your Store" style="display:block;padding-left:10px;">
                                            <img src="http://localhost/opencart-1.5/image/data/logo.png" alt="Your Store" style="display:block; border:none;" />
                                        </a>
                                        </td>
                                    </tr>
                                    </table>
                                </td>
                            </tr>
                            <tr>
                                <td bgcolor="#ffffff" style="background-color:#ffffff; padding:5px 25px 0; font-size:12px; font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height:18px;text-align:left;">
                                    <h1 style="color:#333333; font-size:18px; font-weight:bold; line-height:28px; margin:10px 0;">Your Store</h1>

                                    <p>
                                        <strong>Return ID:</strong> 1<br />
                                        <strong>Return Date:</strong> 11/09/2011                                    </p>

                                    <p>Your return has been updated to the following status: <strong>Complete</strong></p>

                                    <p><strong>The comments for your return are:</strong>gsfdgf<br /><br /><br />g<br />fdgfdgfdgfd</p>                                 
                                    <p>Please reply to this email if you have any questions.</p>
                               </td>
                            </tr>
                        </table>
                    </td>
                </tr>
            </table>
      </td>
   </tr>

</table>

<style type="text/css">
      p {
        font-size:12px;
        font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
        line-height:18px;
        margin:4px 0 12px;
      }
      strong {
        font-weight:bold;         
      }
      a {
        color:#28b0ec;
        text-decoration:none;
        border:none;         
      }
      a:hover {
        color:#28b0ec;
        text-decoration:underline;
        cursor:pointer;         
      }
      a:visited {
        text-decoration:underline;
      } 
    </style>
</body>
</html>
------=_NextPart_b45f3c386576f1955bb5338634f5047f_alt--
------=_NextPart_b45f3c386576f1955bb5338634f5047f--

2 Answers 2

4

There must be an empty line between the message or MIME headers and the message content:

------=_NextPart_b45f3c386576f1955bb5338634f5047f_alt
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Return ID: 1
Return Date: 11/09/2011

Here you'll need an empty line between Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit and Return ID: 1.

If Return ID and Return Date should be headers, they are syntactically wrong. Headers must not contain a whitespace in the header name. Valid headers would be Return-Id and Return-Date.

2
  • I think I get what you mean, although the return ID and date are part of the email body and shouldn't be added to the header. Sep 11, 2011 at 18:52
  • 1
    It is the header. It's not the header of the mail, but it is the header of the Mime-Part. So this is why the error message states "MIME HEADER SECTION" and not "EMAIL HEADER". Joshi is totally correct here. And in the message you see that it complains about Return ID and Return Date.
    – mailq
    Sep 11, 2011 at 21:34
0

It looks like it may also be your MIME Content-Transfer-Encoding declaration of 8bit, whereas it looks like most text-type content is typically declared as 7bit.

Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
3

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