Simple Token Authentication

Token authentication support has been removed from Devise for security reasons. In this gist, Devise's José Valim explains how token authentication should be performed in order to remain safe.

This gem packages the content of the gist.

DISCLAIMER: I am not José Valim, nor has he been involved in the gem bundling process. Implementation errors, if any, are mine; and contributions are welcome. -- GB

Installation

Install Devise with any modules you want, then add the gem to your Gemfile:

# Gemfile

gem 'simple_token_authentication'

Define which controller will handle authentication (typ. ApplicationController):

# app/controllers/application_controller.rb

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  # ...
  acts_as_token_authentication_handler

  # ...
end

Define which model or models will be token authenticatable (typ. User):

# app/models/user.rb

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  acts_as_token_authenticatable

  # Note: you can include any module you want. If available,
  # token authentication will be performed before any other
  # Devise authentication method.
  #
  # Include default devise modules. Others available are:
  # :confirmable, :lockable, :timeoutable and :omniauthable
  devise :invitable, :database_authenticatable,
         :recoverable, :rememberable, :trackable, :validatable,
         :lockable

  # ...
end

If the model or models you chose have no :authentication_token attribute, add them one (with an index):

rails g migration add_authentication_token_to_users authentication_token:string:index
rake db:migrate

Usage

Tokens Generation

Assuming user is an instance of User, which is token authenticatable: each time user will be saved, and user.authentication_token.is_blank? it receives a new and unique authentication token (via Devise.friendly_token).

Authentication Method 1: Query Params

You can authenticate passing the user_email and user_token params as query params:

GET https://secure.example.com?user_email=alice@example.com&user_token=1G8_s7P-V-4MGojaKD7a

The token authentication handler (e.g. ApplicationController) will perform the user sign in if both are correct.

Authentication Method 2: Request Headers

You can also use request headers (which may be simpler when authenticating against an API):

X-User-Email alice@example.com
X-User-Token 1G8_s7P-V-4MGojaKD7a

In fact, you can mix both methods and provide the user_email with one and the user_token with the other, even if it would be a freak thing to do.

Integration with other authentication methods

If sign-in is successful, no other authentication method will be run, but if it doesn't (the authentication params were missing, or incorrect) then Devise takes control and tries to authenticate_user! with its own modules.

Credits

It may sound a bit redundant, but this gem wouldn't exist without this gist.

Help Wanted

Hi, thanks for having kept reading! You can probably help me to bump this gem version to 1.0.0: I want it to be tested before removing the beta flag. If you can provide some help, please make yourself at home at the issue #1.

License

Simple Token Authentication
Copyright (C) 2013 Gonzalo Bulnes Guilpain

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

Jaco-Pretorius/simple_token_authentication