louislam/uptime-kuma · error · Error

Invalid service name. Please use the internal Service Name (

Error message

Invalid service name. Please use the internal Service Name (no spaces).

What it means

Thrown by Monitor.validate() when a "system-service" monitor's system_service_name contains characters outside the set [a-zA-Z0-9._\-@]. This guards the value because it is passed to the service manager; spaces, slashes, shell metacharacters, or unicode break the lookup and risk injection.

Source

Thrown at server/model/monitor.js:1702

        if (this.accepted_statuscodes_json) {
            try {
                JSON.parse(this.accepted_statuscodes_json);
            } catch (e) {
                throw new Error(`Accepted status codes must be valid JSON: ${e.message}`);
            }
        }

        if (["system-service", "pm2"].includes(this.type)) {
            this.system_service_name = (this.system_service_name || "").trim();

            if (!this.system_service_name) {
                throw new Error(this.type === "pm2" ? "PM2 process name is required." : "Service Name is required.");
            }
        }

        if (this.type === "system-service" && !/^[a-zA-Z0-9._\-@]+$/.test(this.system_service_name)) {
            throw new Error("Invalid service name. Please use the internal Service Name (no spaces).");
        }

        if (this.type === "pm2" && /[\u0000-\u001F\u007F]/.test(this.system_service_name)) {
            throw new Error("Invalid PM2 process name.");
        }

        if (this.type === "ping") {
            // ping parameters validation
            if (this.packetSize && (this.packetSize < PING_PACKET_SIZE_MIN || this.packetSize > PING_PACKET_SIZE_MAX)) {
                throw new Error(
                    `Packet size must be between ${PING_PACKET_SIZE_MIN} and ${PING_PACKET_SIZE_MAX} (default: ${PING_PACKET_SIZE_DEFAULT})`
                );
            }

            if (
                this.ping_per_request_timeout &&
                (this.ping_per_request_timeout < PING_PER_REQUEST_TIMEOUT_MIN ||
                    this.ping_per_request_timeout > PING_PER_REQUEST_TIMEOUT_MAX)

View on GitHub (pinned to 6b5ea01557)

Solutions

1. Use the internal service unit name reported by `systemctl list-units --type=service`, e.g. "nginx.service".
2. Strip spaces and shell metacharacters from the value before saving.
3. If the name legitimately needs a disallowed character, alias/wrap the service so its unit name matches the allowed set.

Example fix

// before
{ type: "system-service", system_service_name: "Web Server (prod)" }
// after
{ type: "system-service", system_service_name: "nginx.service" }

const SERVICE_NAME_RE = /^[a-zA-Z0-9._\-@]+$/;
function validServiceName(name) {
  return typeof name === "string" && SERVICE_NAME_RE.test(name);
}

function isAllowedServiceName(name) {
  return typeof name === "string" && /^[a-zA-Z0-9._\-@]+$/.test(name);
}

try {
  await bean.validate();
} catch (e) {
  if (/Invalid service name/.test(e.message)) {
    return badRequest("Use the internal service unit name (no spaces)");
  }
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Save a system-service monitor whose name fails /^[a-zA-Z0-9._\-@]+$/. Common failing inputs: "nginx service" (space), "nginx.service " (trailing space is trimmed, but other whitespace mid-string fails), "user@host:80" (colon not allowed), names with "/" or "%".

Common situations: User enters the human-readable display name ("Web Server") instead of the internal unit name ("nginx.service"). Copying a value from a URL or path that contains disallowed characters. Locale-specific unicode in service names.

Related errors

• Service Name is required.
• Invalid PM2 process name.
• Packet size must be between ${PING_PACKET_SIZE_MIN} and ${PI
• Per-ping timeout must be between ${PING_PER_REQUEST_TIMEOUT_
• Echo requests count must be between ${PING_COUNT_MIN} and ${

AI-assisted analysis of louislam/uptime-kuma@6b5ea01557 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/66157c5e22a15111. Report an issue: GitHub.