Unexplained Email::Receiver::InvalidPost errors

Bug
21

Oh! Given this I’ve gone back and re-investigated… and turns out it’s our problem after all.

From the raw email you posted above, I’ve just discovered that IncomingEmail.raw does not actually store the raw email… we munge it first with Email::Cleaner.

(sorry, this whole time I thought we could trust it, we used to be able to)

This seems to be the Ruby mail gem’s fault… it reorders parts of a mail message when writing it back out:

[1] pry(main)> m = File.open('test.eml').read;
[2] pry(main)> Mail.new(m).parts
=> [
  #<Mail::Part:39680, Multipart: true, Headers: <Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary="Sig_/gizYC_1dGsAzUHvksdaMIe2"; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; micalg=pgp-sha256>>,
  #<Mail::Part:39700, Multipart: false, Headers: <MIME-Version: 1.0>, <Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii">, <Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit>, <Content-Disposition: inline>>
 ]
[3] pry(main)> Mail.new(Mail.new(m).to_s).parts
=> [
  #<Mail::Part:39720, Multipart: false, Headers: <MIME-Version: 1.0>, <Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii>, <Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit>, <Content-Disposition: inline>, <Content-ID: <6966b4914df79_31d5b1d38126@mars.mail>>>,
  #<Mail::Part:39740, Multipart: true, Headers: <Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary="Sig_/gizYC_1dGsAzUHvksdaMIe2"; micalg=pgp-sha256; protocol="application/pgp-signature">, <Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit>>
]

which causes the problem:

[38] pry(main)> puts Email::Receiver.new(m).select_body[0];
> We received a court order to preserve the data on the system and were
> forbidden from informing the system owner, which was awkward since
> they had informed the system owner...

Which data did they request?

> Since then I've always run my exit on a separate system on it's own
> IP so if there were a legal demand to turn over "the system" it would
> really only be that system. I'm not a lawyer but I don't think docker
> provides enough isolation for that.

Can they deny you to turn the relay off?
If so, you could then operate a new "system" on another IP.

[39] pry(main)> puts Email::Receiver.new(Mail.new(m).to_s).select_body[0];
«no output»
Difference details

test.eml: raw message as provided
test-rubyparsed.eml: message parsed by ruby then turned back into a string
test-pythonparsed.eml: message parsed by python then turned back into a string

--- test.eml	2026-01-13 15:58:18.769489410 -0500
+++ test-rubyparsed.eml	2026-01-13 16:11:17.767312268 -0500
@@ -1,25 +1,46 @@
+Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2026 16:07:21 -0500
+From: Marco Moock via tor-relays <tor-relays@lists.torproject.org>
+Reply-To: Marco Moock <mm@dorfdsl.de>
+Message-ID: <6966b40914be8_31d5b1d38719@mars.mail>
 Subject: [tor-relays] Re: Questions about running an exit relay
+MIME-Version: 1.0
+Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
+ boundary="===============8958541500975114832=="
+Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
 List-Id: "support and questions about running Tor relays (exit, non-exit,
  bridge)" <tor-relays.lists.torproject.org>
-Archived-At: 
- <https://lists.torproject.org/mailman3/hyperkitty/list/tor-relays@lists.torproject.org/message/OAX7EO72GLXS4KPKUG7QSG7EOAR2WYVA/>
-List-Archive: 
- <https://lists.torproject.org/mailman3/hyperkitty/list/tor-relays@lists.torproject.org/>
+Archived-At: <https://lists.torproject.org/mailman3/hyperkitty/list/tor-relays@lists.torproject.org/message/OAX7EO72GLXS4KPKUG7QSG7EOAR2WYVA/>
+List-Archive: <https://lists.torproject.org/mailman3/hyperkitty/list/tor-relays@lists.torproject.org/>
 List-Help: <mailto:tor-relays-request@lists.torproject.org?subject=help>
 List-Owner: <mailto:tor-relays-owner@lists.torproject.org>
 List-Post: <mailto:tor-relays@lists.torproject.org>
 List-Subscribe: <mailto:tor-relays-join@lists.torproject.org>
 List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:tor-relays-leave@lists.torproject.org>
-From: Marco Moock via tor-relays <tor-relays@lists.torproject.org>
-Reply-To: Marco Moock <mm@dorfdsl.de>
-Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="===============8958541500975114832=="
+
+
+--===============8958541500975114832==
+MIME-Version: 1.0
+Content-Type: text/plain;
+ charset=us-ascii
+Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
+Content-Disposition: inline
+Content-ID: <6966b40914ae9_31d5b1d38641@mars.mail>
+
+_______________________________________________
+tor-relays mailing list -- tor-relays@lists.torproject.org
+To unsubscribe send an email to tor-relays-leave@lists.torproject.org
 
 --===============8958541500975114832==
-Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary="Sig_/gizYC_1dGsAzUHvksdaMIe2";
- protocol="application/pgp-signature"; micalg=pgp-sha256
+Content-Type: multipart/signed;
+ boundary="Sig_/gizYC_1dGsAzUHvksdaMIe2";
+ micalg=pgp-sha256;
+ protocol="application/pgp-signature"
+Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
+
 
 --Sig_/gizYC_1dGsAzUHvksdaMIe2
-Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
+Content-Type: text/plain;
+ charset=US-ASCII
 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
 
 On 02.01.2026 18:46 Jon via tor-relays
@@ -39,7 +60,8 @@
 Can they deny you to turn the relay off?
 If so, you could then operate a new "system" on another IP.
 
---=20
+-- =
+
 kind regards
 Marco
 
@@ -47,6 +69,7 @@
 
 --Sig_/gizYC_1dGsAzUHvksdaMIe2
 Content-Type: application/pgp-signature
+Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
 Content-Description: Digitale Signatur von OpenPGP
 
 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
@@ -69,14 +92,5 @@
 
 --Sig_/gizYC_1dGsAzUHvksdaMIe2--
 
---===============8958541500975114832==
-Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
-MIME-Version: 1.0
-Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
-Content-Disposition: inline
-
-_______________________________________________
-tor-relays mailing list -- tor-relays@lists.torproject.org
-To unsubscribe send an email to tor-relays-leave@lists.torproject.org
-
 --===============8958541500975114832==--
+

--- test.eml	2026-01-13 15:58:18.769489410 -0500
+++ test-pythonparsed.eml	2026-01-13 16:19:30.385608544 -0500
@@ -1,10 +1,8 @@
 Subject: [tor-relays] Re: Questions about running an exit relay
 List-Id: "support and questions about running Tor relays (exit, non-exit,
  bridge)" <tor-relays.lists.torproject.org>
-Archived-At: 
- <https://lists.torproject.org/mailman3/hyperkitty/list/tor-relays@lists.torproject.org/message/OAX7EO72GLXS4KPKUG7QSG7EOAR2WYVA/>
-List-Archive: 
- <https://lists.torproject.org/mailman3/hyperkitty/list/tor-relays@lists.torproject.org/>
+Archived-At: <https://lists.torproject.org/mailman3/hyperkitty/list/tor-relays@lists.torproject.org/message/OAX7EO72GLXS4KPKUG7QSG7EOAR2WYVA/>
+List-Archive: <https://lists.torproject.org/mailman3/hyperkitty/list/tor-relays@lists.torproject.org/>
 List-Help: <mailto:tor-relays-request@lists.torproject.org?subject=help>
 List-Owner: <mailto:tor-relays-owner@lists.torproject.org>
 List-Post: <mailto:tor-relays@lists.torproject.org>

I opened:

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