Overview

Provides simple, form-based authentication for apps that need security but don't want to deal with the clunky UI of HTTP Basic Authentication or something as heavyweight as Devise. It doesn't require a database and is compatible with password managers like 1Password making for a pleasent user experience.

Features

• Form-based authentication compatible with password managers like 1Password.

• Encrypted account credentials.
• Multiple account support with account specific blacklisted paths.
• Auto-redirection to requested path (once credentials have been verified).
• Log filtering for account credentials (login and password).
• Customizable view support.
• Customizable controller support.
• Customizable logger support.

Requirements

1. Any of the following Ruby VMs:
   • MRI 2.x.x
   • JRuby 1.x.x
   • Rubinius 2.x.x
2. Ruby on Rails 4.x.x.

Setup

For a secure install, type the following from the command line (recommended):

gem cert --add <(curl -Ls http://www.alchemists.io/gem-public.pem)
gem install auther --trust-policy MediumSecurity

NOTE: A HighSecurity trust policy would be best but MediumSecurity enables signed gem verification while allowing the installation of unsigned dependencies since they are beyond the scope of this gem.

For an insecure install, type the following (not recommended):

gem install auther

Add the following to your Gemfile:

gem "auther"

Run the generator to configure and initialize your application:

rails generate auther:install

Usage

Assuming you are using the excellent dotenv gem, add the following to your .env settings:

AUTHER_SECRET=66is2tB4EbekG74DPGRmyQkdtZkQyNWZY6yeeNsmQ4Rpu42esdnP9X6puxpKfs64Gy2ghPu6QGTKsvQ73wXuDyWzDr
AUTHER_ADMIN_LOGIN=aHdMWUhiVGRyVHBPMmhTRWNRR082MFhNdVFkL2ZaSGpvY2VoVS90dGRpRT0tLXFBWWZDRkJ4aDR3Qy9aamNOeU1JekE9PQ==--bf077a68a8e654ed9e480851c9597dae57ec34b8
AUTHER_ADMIN_PASSWORD=VTloc285SVNrbnlHN0xhOTlMVEx6WnZ0VnFOMjFNWWdkZlRKdGVjZ1FtUT0tLTkrSDdweU1meVdFV1FIRnhpenZiK1E9PQ==--85c415da879ffab2491d37d767d108254d1ed57e

Launch your Rails application and visit the following:

http://localhost:3000/login

Use these credentials to login:

• Login: test@test.com
• Password: password

Customization

Initializer

The initializer (installed during setup) can be found here:

config/initializers/auther.rb

The initializer comes installed with the following settings:

Rails.application.config.auther_settings = {
  secret: ENV["AUTHER_SECRET"],
  accounts: [
    name: "admin",
    encrypted_login: ENV["AUTHER_ADMIN_LOGIN"],
    encrypted_password: ENV["AUTHER_ADMIN_PASSWORD"],
    paths: ["/admin"]
  ]
}

IMPORTANT: The encrypted secret, login, and password credentials used in the .env setup above must be re-encrypted before deploying to production! To encrypt/decrypt account credentials, launch a rails console and run the following:

# Best if more than 150 characters and gibberish to read. Must be the same as defined in auther settings.
cipher = Auther::Cipher.new "vuKrwD9XWoYuv@s99?tR(9VqryiL,KV{W7wFnejUa4QcVBP+D{2rD4JfuD(mXgA=$tNK4Pfn#NeGs3o3TZ3CqNc^Qb"

# Do this to encrypt an unecrypted value.
cipher.encrypt "test@test.com"

# Do this to decrypt an encrypted value.
cipher.decrypt "N3JzR213WlBISDZsMjJQNkRXbEVmYVczbVdnMHRYVHRud29lOWRCekp6ST0tLWpFMkROekUvWDBkOHZ4ZngxZHV6clE9PQ==--cd863c39991fa4bb9a35de918aa16da54514e331"

The initializer can be customized as follows:

• *title- - Optional. The HTML page title (as rendered within a browser tab). Default: "Authorization".
• *label- - Optional. The page label (what would appear above the form). Default: "Authorization".
• *secret- - Required. The secret passphrase used to encrypt/decrypt account credentials.
• *accounts- - Required. The array of accounts with different or similar access to the application.
  • *name- - Required. The account name. The name that uniquely identifies each account.
  • *encrypted_login- - Required. The encrypted account login.
  • *encrypted_password- - Required. The encrypted account password.
  • *paths- - Required. The array of blacklisted paths for which only this account has access to.
  • *authorized_url- - Optional. The URL to redirect to upon successful authorization. Authorized redirection works as follows (in the order defined):
    1. The blacklisted path (if requested prior to authorization but now authorized).
    2. The authorized URL (if defined and the blacklisted path wasn't requested).
    3. The root path (if none of the above).
  • *deauthorized_url- - Optional. The URL to redirect to upon successful deauthorization (i.e. logout). Deauthorized redirections works as follows (in the order defined):
    1. The deauthorized URL (if defined).
    2. The auth URL.
• *auth_url- - Optional. The URL to redirect to when enforcing authentication. Default: “/login”.
• *logger- - Optional. The logger used to log path/account authorization messages. Default: Auther::NullLogger.

Routes

The routes can be customized as follows (installed, by default, via the install generator):

Rails.application.routes.draw do
  mount Auther::Engine => "/auther"
  get "/login", to: "auther/session#new", as: "login"
  delete "/logout", to: "auther/session#destroy", as: "logout"
end

Model

The Auther::Account is a plain old Ruby object that uses ActiveModel validations to aid in attribute validation. This model could potentially be replaced with a database-backed object (would require controller customization)...but you might want to question if you have outgrown the use of this gem and need a different solution altogether if it comes to that.

Presenter

The Auther::Presenter::Account is a plain old Ruby object that uses ActiveModel validations to aid in form validation. This presenter makes it easy to construct form data for input and validation.

View

The view can be customized by creating the following file within your Rails application (assumes that the default Auther::SessionController implementation is sufficient):

app/views/auther/session/new.html

The form uses @account_presenter instance variable which is an instance of the Auther::Presenter::Account presenter (as mentioned above). The form can be stylized by attaching new styles to the .authorization class (see auther.scss for details).

Controller

The Auther::SessionController inherits from the Auther::BaseController. To customize, it is recommended that you add a controller to your app that inherits from the Auther::BaseController. Example:

# Example Path:  app/controllers/session_controller.rb
class SessionController < Auther::BaseController
  layout "example"
end

This allows complete customization of session controller behavior to serve any special business needs. See the Auther::BaseController for additional details or the Auther::SessionController for default implementation.

Logging

As mentioned in the setup above, the logger can be customized as follows:

Auther::NullLogger.new # This is the default logger (which is no logging at all).
ActiveSupport::Logger.new("log/#{Rails.env}.log") # Can be used to log to the environment log.
Logger.new(STDOUT) # Can be used to log to standard output.

When logging is enabled, you'll be able to see the following information in the server logs to help debug custom Auther settings:

• Requested path and blacklist path detection.
• Finding (or not finding) of account.
• Account authentication pass/fail.
• Account and path authorization pass/fail.

Tests

To test, run:

bundle exec rspec spec

Upgrading

For those using Auther 1.x.x, there are a few minor changes to be applied in order to upgrade to 2.x.x:

1. Move the old Auther settings (i.e. config/application.rb) into an Auther initilizer (i.e. config/initializers/auther.rb). Read the *Customization- section above for additional instruction.
2. All account settings have changed from login and password to encrypted_login and encrypted_password keys.
3. The success_url account settings have been renamed to authorized_url.

Troubleshooting

• If upgrading Rails, changing the cookie/session settings, generating a new secret base key, etc. this might cause Auther authentication to fail. Make sure to clear your browser cookies in this situation or use Google Chrome (incognito mode) to verify.

Resources

• Simplest Auth - For situations where you need user and email reset support beyond what this engine can provide.
• Devise - For complex situations where you need persisted user objects, email support, social media support, and much more.

Contributions

Read CONTRIBUTING for details.

Credits

Developed by Brooke Kuhlmann at Alchemists.

License

Copyright (c) 2014 Alchemists. Read the LICENSE for details.

History

Read the CHANGELOG for details. Built with Gemsmith.