Controller actions are protected from Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attacks by including a token in the rendered html for your application. This token is stored as a random string in the session, to which an attacker does not have access. When a request reaches your application, Rails verifies the received token with the token in the session. Only HTML and JavaScript requests are checked, so this will not protect your XML API (presumably you’ll have a different authentication scheme there anyway). Also, GET requests are not protected as these should be idempotent.
It’s important to remember that XML or JSON requests are also affected and if you’re building an API you’ll need something like:
class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base protect_from_forgery skip_before_action :verify_authenticity_token, if: :json_request? protected def json_request? request.format.json? end end
CSRF protection is turned on with the protect_from_forgery method, which checks the token and resets the session if it doesn’t match what was expected. A call to this method is generated for new Rails applications by default.
The token parameter is named authenticity_token by default. The name and value of this token must be added to every layout that renders forms by including csrf_meta_tags in the html head.
Learn more about CSRF attacks and securing your application in the Ruby on Rails Security Guide.
The form’s authenticity parameter. Override to provide your own.
# File lib/action_controller/metal/request_forgery_protection.rb, line 198 def form_authenticity_param params[request_forgery_protection_token] end
Sets the token value for the current session.
# File lib/action_controller/metal/request_forgery_protection.rb, line 193 def form_authenticity_token session[:_csrf_token] ||= SecureRandom.base64(32) end
# File lib/action_controller/metal/request_forgery_protection.rb, line 169 def handle_unverified_request forgery_protection_strategy.new(self).handle_unverified_request end
# File lib/action_controller/metal/request_forgery_protection.rb, line 202 def protect_against_forgery? allow_forgery_protection end
Returns true or false if a request is verified. Checks:
is it a GET or HEAD request? Gets should be safe and idempotent
Does the form_authenticity_token match the given token value from the params?
Does the X-CSRF-Token header match the form_authenticity_token
# File lib/action_controller/metal/request_forgery_protection.rb, line 186 def verified_request? !protect_against_forgery? || request.get? || request.head? || form_authenticity_token == params[request_forgery_protection_token] || form_authenticity_token == request.headers['X-CSRF-Token'] end
The actual before_action that is used. Modify this to change how you handle unverified requests.
# File lib/action_controller/metal/request_forgery_protection.rb, line 174 def verify_authenticity_token unless verified_request? logger.warn "Can't verify CSRF token authenticity" if logger handle_unverified_request end end
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