Pragma theme folder makes website down OJS

Software Support
1

Hi

I am using OJs 3.3.0.11

The website goes down with error 500 once a month or after 15 days. The error log is this

[23-Mar-2025 16:08:17 UTC] PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught Error: Class 'PKP\plugins\ThemePlugin' not found in /home/hamdardis/public_html/plugins/themes/pragma/PragmaThemePlugin.inc.php:20
Stack trace:
#0 /home/hamdardis/public_html/plugins/themes/pragma/index.php(15): require_once()
#1 /home/hamdardis/public_html/lib/pkp/classes/plugins/PluginRegistry.inc.php(241): include('/home/hamdardis...')
#2 /home/hamdardis/public_html/lib/pkp/classes/plugins/PluginRegistry.inc.php(114): PluginRegistry::_instantiatePlugin('themes', 'plugins/themes', 'pragma', 'PragmaThemePlug...')
#3 /home/hamdardis/public_html/lib/pkp/classes/template/PKPTemplateManager.inc.php(1245): PluginRegistry::loadCategory('themes', true)
#4 /home/hamdardis/public_html/lib/pkp/classes/plugins/Plugin.inc.php(359): PKPTemplateManager::getManager()
#5 /home/hamdardis/public_html/lib/pkp/classes/plugins/Plugin.inc.php(115): Plugin->_registerTemplateResource()
#6 /home/hamdardis/public_html/lib/pkp/classes/plugins/LazyLoadPlugin.inc.php(28): Plugin->register('generic', 'plugins/generic...', NULL)
 in /home/hamdardis/public_html/plugins/themes/pragma/PragmaThemePlugin.inc.php on line 20

I go into themes folder and there is a pragma named folder. I rename it to any name and then website starts working fine. Again after few days another pragma named folder appears and again I have to delete it or rename it.

Please guide and advise.

Thanks

2

Hi @a2usmani,

It looks to me like someone or something is trying to install a version of the Pragma theme plugin that’s intended to run on OJS 3.4.0, not 3.3.0. It’s not compatible, so you are getting OJS errors.

I couldn’t tell you why the plugin is being installed. If you’re sure nobody is trying to manually do this, you might investigate the access log around the same time as the error appears to see if there is any plugin activity shown there. If there is none, then perhaps the code is being added through another mechanism, like SFTP.

OJS 3.3.0-11 is somewhat out of date, and there are known XSS flaws in it. I would recommend upgrading to the latest release and staying current.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

4

Dear @asmecher

Thankyou for your reply. I will upgrade to the latest version but I cannot find the correct step by step documentation for upgrading.

Can you provide me a link or a documentation other than PKP one since I cannot understand that one.

I will be thankful to you. I have to upgrade journal but cant find the right correct way.

Thanks

5

Hi @a2usmani,

We are trying to maintain only one set of documentation rather than several; there are various videos etc. out there but I cannot vouch for them. Maybe this is an opportunity to improve our documentation; is there a particular aspect you’re finding difficult?

Thanks,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

6

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