OJS 3.4.0-7 admin login and permissions issue after database role repair

Software Support
1

Describe the issue or problem

We are using OJS 3.4.0-7 on Ubuntu Server with Apache2 and MariaDB.

Our original admin account suddenly lost permissions.

Current issues:

  • Login sometimes works
  • Only the journal homepage opens after login
  • Dashboard does not open
  • “You are not authorized to access the requested resource”
  • “You do not have sufficient permissions to administer this user”
  • “Edit User” fails
  • User & Roles management partially broken

Steps I took leading up to the issue

  1. Tried resetting admin password
  2. Cleared OJS cache folders
  3. Cleared sessions table
  4. Restarted Apache
  5. Assigned roles manually in database
  6. Created a temporary admin user manually
  7. Tried bcrypt and SHA1 password methods

What application are you using?

OJS 3.4.0-7

Additional information

Environment:

  • Ubuntu Server
  • Apache2
  • MariaDB

We suspect:

  • authentication/password hash mismatch
  • corrupted role mapping
  • context permission inconsistency

We would appreciate guidance on the safest way to recover admin/dashboard access without losing journals, submissions, and users.

2

Hi @ViswamPublications,

Other posts here in the forum (you may try searching “recover admin access”) suggest that editing the users table directly might be an option, provided you have database access.

-Roger
PKP Team