🛠️ Critical issue with Custom Images plugin on Paper 1.21.4 – Chat disabled #134
Description
🛠️ Critical issue with Custom Images plugin on Paper 1.21.4 – Chat disabled
Hello,
I'm reporting a critical issue caused by the plugin "Image (Custom Images)" on a Paper 1.21.4 server.
🎯 Symptoms
For several hours, players were completely unable to:
- Send chat messages
- Use commands like /craft
- Interact normally with the game
The server displayed the following errors:
Failed to update secure chat state: 'Chat disabled due to missing profile public key.'
Chat validation error
Got an error with a html body connecting to https://api.minecraftservices.com/minecraft/profile/lookup/bulk/byname: 403 Forbidden
🔍 Diagnosis steps
I went through the following actions to isolate the issue:
- Disabled all chat-related plugins (ChatManager, TAB, ProtocolLib, DiscordSRV…)
- Checked server.properties (enforce-secure-profile=false) and paper-global.yml (enable-chat-signing=false)
- Copied the server to another IP/machine (provided by host)
- Removed usercache.json, whitelist.json, etc.
The problem still persisted.
✅ Root cause
Only after disabling the plugin Image, the chat started working again instantly.
- With Image enabled → Chat blocked (missing profile public key)
- With Image disabled → Chat 100% functional
✅ Fully reproducible test.
📌 Technical hypothesis
The plugin relies on ProtocolLib and likely modifies some packets (like ServerboundChatPacket, PlayerInfo, etc.), which conflicts with the signed chat system introduced since Minecraft 1.19+, enforced in Paper.
Even if not modifying chat directly, the plugin still interferes with chat-critical packets.
🛠️ Suggestions
- Add official support or compatibility with Paper 1.19+ / 1.21.x
- Provide a no-network-interaction mode (or chat-safe mode)
- At least document the issue clearly to warn users
Thanks a lot for your great work on this plugin 🙏
I hope this report helps you fix or improve compatibility in the next updates.