“Unknown error” installing ClamAV Plugin

When I try to install the ClamAM Plugin in i-MSCP 1.3.10 running on Ubuntu Server 14.04.5 LTS Trusty, the installation stalls with a status of “Unexpected error”

(I did follow the daemon/milter installation instructions listed here: https://wiki.i-mscp.net/doku.php?id=plugins:clamav )

When I click the little blue question mark icon next to the “Unexpected error” status, I receive the following detail:

• Plugin::ClamAV::_configureClamavUnofficialSigs: Unknown error

The “Force retry” button yields the same result. I am unable to activate, deactivate, uninstall or delete the Plugin. I have tried removing and reinstalling the pertinent ClamAV packages with no effect. Anybody have any advice how to proceed?

I believe I have resolved my problem. It seems to have been related to an IP-Block (local to my system, as a security measure). I will investigate the specifics and post a follow-up as soon as possible.

In this case, this definitely turned out to be a self-inflicted problem. We use IP blocks to prevent access from parts of the world that have no legitimate reason to be accessing our servers and are generally up to no good. These blocks include IP ranges used by former Eastern Bloc territories, much of Africa, parts of South America and many indiscriminate ISPs that have demonstrated an ongoing unwillingness to do anything about the compromised systems on their networks. Occasionally, benign hosts get blocked in the process. That is what was happening here.

The key to unraveling the mystery was /var/log/clamav-unofficial-sigs/clamav-unofficial-sigs.log, where I found many iterations of this error message:

Dec 20 22:27:36 ALERT: Could not download Sanesecurity public GPG key
Dec 20 22:49:30 Preparing Databases
Dec 20 22:49:31 ALERT: Could not download Sanesecurity public GPG key
Dec 21 00:07:39 Preparing Databases
et cetera

After taking down my blocks (Actually, I was able to determine the specific blocks that needed to be removed by examining /var/log/clamav/freshclam.log) and forcing a reinstall (from the Unknown error information dialogue box) the atmosphere in my clamav-unofficial-sigs.log file finally turned the corner and everything started working.

Dec 21 00:07:40 Sanesecurity public GPG key successfully downloaded
Dec 21 00:07:40 Sanesecurity public GPG key successfully imported to custom keyring
Dec 21 00:07:40 Sanesecurity Database & GPG Signature File Updates
Dec 21 00:07:40 Checking for Sanesecurity updates...

I feel pretty good about solving this myself and hope that this information will be helpful to others. If nothing else, I hope it encourages you to be inquisitive. Remember—i-MSCP is a fantastic tool, but it is not intended to be a substitute for a real administrator. Don’t be afraid to check your logs. The answers you seek are often waiting for you therein.