User filter_parameter_logging for password

2008 May 22
by Fadhli

This morning while I was looking at some codes, I’ve found something
interesting. When I login, I looked at the logs and I could see clearly
the password that I’d just entered.

Example

Parameters:{"commit"=>"Log in", "action"=>"create","controller"=>"sessions", "password"=>"password123","login"=>"foobar"}

I know, this looks like a trivial matter
but imagine anyone having access to our server looking at our
production logs file. Passwords are left wide open for the whole world
to see.

But no worries, just add this one liner in your application.rb


class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
 filter_parameter_logging "password"
end

Go back to your login form, fill in your login name and password and then submit. Check out the logs and see the parameters hash.

Parameters: {"commit"=>"Log in", "action"=>"create","controller"=>"sessions", "login"=>"foobar","password"=>"[FILTERED]"}

Notice the hash key ‘password’?

No comments yet

Leave a Reply

Note: You can use basic XHTML in your comments. Your email address will never be published.

Subscribe to this comment feed via RSS