Rodauth¶ ↑

Rodauth is Ruby’s most advanced authentication framework, designed to work in any rack application. It’s built using Roda and Sequel, but it can be used with other web frameworks, database libraries, and databases.

When used with PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Microsoft SQL Server in the default configuration, it offers additional security for password hashes by protecting access via database functions.

Rodauth supports multiple multifactor authentication methods, multiple passwordless authentication methods, and offers both an HTML and JSON API for all supported features.

Design Goals¶ ↑

Security: Ship in a maximum security by default configuration
Simplicity: Allow for easy configuration via a DSL
Flexibility: Allow for easy overriding of any part of the framework

Features¶ ↑

Login
Logout
Change Password
Change Login
Reset Password
Create Account
Close Account
Verify Account
Confirm Password
Remember (Autologin via token)
Lockout (Bruteforce protection)
Audit Logging
Email Authentication (Passwordless login via email link)
WebAuthn (Multifactor authentication via WebAuthn)
WebAuthn Login (Passwordless login via WebAuthn)
WebAuthn Verify Account (Passwordless WebAuthn Setup)
WebAuthn Autofill (Autofill WebAuthn credentials on login)
OTP (Multifactor authentication via TOTP)
Recovery Codes (Multifactor authentication via backup codes)
SMS Codes (Multifactor authentication via SMS)
Verify Login Change (Verify new login before changing login)
Verify Account Grace Period (Don’t require verification before login)
Password Grace Period (Don’t require password entry if recently entered)
Password Complexity (More sophisticated checks)
Password Pepper
Disallow Password Reuse
Disallow Common Passwords
Password Expiration
Account Expiration
Session Expiration
Active Sessions (Prevent session reuse after logout, allow logout of all sessions)
Single Session (Only one active session per account)
JSON (JSON API support for all other features)
JWT (JSON Web Token support for all other features)
JWT Refresh (Access & Refresh Token)
JWT CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing)
Update Password Hash (when hash cost changes)
Argon2
HTTP Basic Auth
Change Password Notify
Reset Password Notify
Internal Request
Path Class Methods

Resources¶ ↑

Website: rodauth.jeremyevans.net
Demo Site: rodauth-demo.jeremyevans.net
Source: github.com/jeremyevans/rodauth
Bugs: github.com/jeremyevans/rodauth/issues
Discussion Forum (GitHub Discussions): github.com/jeremyevans/rodauth/discussions
Alternate Discussion Forum (Google Groups): groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/rodauth

Dependencies¶ ↑

There are some dependencies that Rodauth uses depending on the features in use. These are development dependencies instead of runtime dependencies in the gem as it is possible to run without them:

tilt: Used by all features unless in JSON API only mode or using :render=>false plugin option.
rack_csrf: Used for CSRF support if the csrf: :rack_csrf plugin option is given (the default is to use Roda’s route_csrf plugin, as that allows for more secure request-specific tokens).
bcrypt: Used by default for password hashing, can be skipped if password_match? is overridden for custom authentication.
argon2: Used by the argon2 feature as alternative to bcrypt for password hashing.
mail: Used by default for mailing in the reset_password, verify_account, verify_login_change, change_password_notify, lockout, and email_auth features.
rotp: Used by the otp feature
rqrcode: Used by the otp feature
jwt: Used by the jwt feature
webauthn: Used by the webauthn feature

Security¶ ↑

Password Hash Access Via Database Functions¶ ↑

By default on PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Microsoft SQL Server, Rodauth uses database functions to access password hashes, with the user running the application unable to get direct access to password hashes. This reduces the risk of an attacker being able to access password hashes and use them to attack other sites.

The rest of this section describes this feature in more detail, but note that Rodauth does not require this feature be used and works correctly without it. There may be cases where you cannot use this feature, such as when using a different database or when you do not have full control over the database you are using.

Passwords are hashed using bcrypt by default, and the password hashes are kept in a separate table from the accounts table, with a foreign key referencing the accounts table. Two database functions are added, one to retrieve the salt for a password, and the other to check if a given password hash matches the password hash for the user.

Two database accounts are used. The first is the account that the application uses, which is referred to as the app account. The app account does not have access to read the password hashes. The other account handles password hashes and is referred to as the ph account. The ph account sets up the database functions that can retrieve the salt for a given account’s password, and check if a password hash matches for a given account. The ph account sets these functions up so that the app account can execute the functions using the ph account’s permissions. This allows the app account to check passwords without having access to read password hashes.

While the app account is not be able to read password hashes, it is still be able to insert password hashes, update passwords hashes, and delete password hashes, so the additional security is not that painful.

By disallowing the app account access to the password hashes, it is much more difficult for an attacker to access the password hashes, even if they are able to exploit an SQL injection or remote code execution vulnerability in the application.

The reason for extra security in regards to password hashes stems from the fact that people tend to choose poor passwords and reuse passwords, so a compromise of one database containing password hashes can result in account access on other sites, making password hash storage of critical importance even if the other data stored is not that important.

If you are storing other sensitive information in your database, you should consider using a similar approach in other areas (or all areas) of your application.

Tokens¶ ↑

Account verification, password resets, email auth, verify login change, remember, and lockout tokens all use a similar approach. They all provide a token, in the format “account-id_long-random-string”. By including the id of the account in the token, an attacker can only attempt to bruteforce the token for a single account, instead of being able to bruteforce tokens for all accounts at once (which would be possible if the token was just a random string).

Additionally, all comparisons of tokens use a timing-safe comparison function to reduce the risk of timing attacks.

HMAC¶ ↑

By default, for backwards compatibility, Rodauth does not use HMACs, but you are strongly encouraged to use the hmac_secret configuration method to set an HMAC secret. Setting an HMAC secret will enable HMACs for additional security, as described below.

email_base feature¶ ↑

All features that send email use this feature. Setting hmac_secret will make the tokens sent via email use an HMAC, while the raw token stored in the database will not use an HMAC. This will make it so if the tokens in the database are leaked (e.g. via an SQL injection vulnerability), they will not be usable without also having access to the hmac_secret. Without an HMAC, the raw token is sent in the email, and if the tokens in the database are leaked, they will be usable.

To allow for an graceful transition, you can set allow_raw_email_token? to true temporarily. This will allow the raw tokens in previous sent emails to still work. This should only be set temporarily as it removes the security that hmac_secret adds. Most features that send email have tokens that expire by default in 1 day. The exception is the verify_account feature, which has tokens that do not expire. For the verify_account feature, if the user requested an email before hmac_secret was set, after allow_raw_email_token is no longer set, they will need to request the verification email be resent, in which case they will receive an email with a token that uses an HMAC.

remember feature¶ ↑

Similar to the email_base feature, this uses HMACs for remember tokens, while storing the raw tokens in the database. This makes it so if the raw tokens in the database are leaked, the remember tokens are not usable without knowledge of the hmac_secret.

The raw_remember_token_deadline configuration method can be set to allow a previously set raw remember token to be used if the deadline for the remember token is before the given time. This allows for graceful transition to using HMACs for remember tokens. By default, the deadline is 14 days after the token is created, so this should be set to 14 days after the time you enable the HMAC for the remember feature if you are using the defaults.

otp feature¶ ↑

Setting hmac_secret will provide HMACed OTP keys to users, and would store the raw OTP keys in the database. This will make so if the raw OTP keys in the database are leaked, they will not be usable for two factor authentication without knowledge of the hmac_secret.

Unfortunately, there can be no simple graceful transition for existing users. When introducing hmac_secret to a Rodauth installation that already uses the otp feature, you will have to either revoke and replace all OTP keys, set otp_keys_use_hmac? to false and continue to use raw OTP keys, or override otp_keys_use_hmac? to return false if the user was issued an OTP key before hmac_secret was added to the configuration, and true otherwise. otp_keys_use_hmac? defaults to true if hmac_secret is set, and false otherwise.

If otp_keys_use_hmac? is true, Rodauth will also ensure during OTP setup that the OTP key was generated by the server. If otp_keys_use_hmac? is false, any OTP key in a valid format will be accepted during setup.

If otp_keys_use_hmac? is true, the jwt and otp features are in use and you are setting up OTP via JSON requests, you need to first send a POST request to the OTP setup route. This will return an error with the otp_secret and otp_raw_secret parameters in the JSON. These parameters should be submitted in the POST request to setup OTP, along with a valid OTP auth code for the otp_secret.

webauthn feature¶ ↑

Setting hmac_secret is required to use the webauthn feature, as it is used for checking that the provided authentication challenges have not been modified.

active_sessions feature¶ ↑

Setting hmac_secret is required to use the active_sessions feature, as the database stores an HMAC of the active session ID.

single_session feature¶ ↑

Setting hmac_secret will ensure the single session secret set in the session will be an HMACed. This does not affect security, as the session itself should at the least by protected by an HMAC (if not encrypted). This is only done for consistency, so that the raw tokens in the database are distinct from the tokens provided to the users. To allow for a graceful transition, allow_raw_single_session_key? can be set to true.

PostgreSQL Database Setup¶ ↑

In order to get full advantages of Rodauth’s security design on PostgreSQL, multiple database accounts are involved:

database superuser account (usually postgres)
app account (same name as application)
ph account (application name with _password appended)

The database superuser account is used to load extensions related to the database. The application should never be run using the database superuser account.

Create database accounts¶ ↑

If you are currently running your application using the database superuser account, the first thing you need to do is to create the app database account. It’s often best to name this account the same as the database name.

You should also create the ph database account which will handle access to the password hashes.

Example for PostgreSQL:

createuser -U postgres ${DATABASE_NAME}
createuser -U postgres ${DATABASE_NAME}_password

Note that if the database superuser account owns all of the items in the database, you’ll need to change the ownership to the database account you just created. See gist.github.com/jeremyevans/8483320 for a way to do that.

Create database¶ ↑

In general, the app account is the owner of the database, since it will own most of the tables:

createdb -U postgres -O ${DATABASE_NAME} ${DATABASE_NAME}

Note that this is not the most secure way to develop applications. For maximum security, you would want to use a separate database account as the owner of the tables, have the app account not be the owner of any tables, and specifically grant the app account only the minimum access it needs to work correctly. Doing that is beyond the scope of Rodauth, though.

Load extensions¶ ↑

If you want to use the login features for Rodauth, you need to load the citext extension if you want to support case insensitive logins.

Example:

psql -U postgres -c "CREATE EXTENSION citext" ${DATABASE_NAME}

Note that on Heroku, this extension can be loaded using a standard database account. If you want logins to be case sensitive (generally considered a bad idea), you don’t need to use the PostgreSQL citext extension. Just remember to modify the migration below to use String instead of citext for the email in that case.

Grant schema rights (PostgreSQL 15+)¶ ↑

PostgreSQL 15 changed default database security so that only the database owner has writable access to the public schema. Rodauth expects the ph account to have writable access to the public schema when setting things up. Temporarily grant that access (it will be revoked after the migation has run)

psql -U postgres -c "GRANT CREATE ON SCHEMA public TO ${DATABASE_NAME}_password" ${DATABASE_NAME}

Using non-default schema¶ ↑

PostgreSQL sets up new tables in the public schema by default. If you would like to use separate schemas per user, you can do:

psql -U postgres -c "DROP SCHEMA public;" ${DATABASE_NAME}
psql -U postgres -c "CREATE SCHEMA ${DATABASE_NAME} AUTHORIZATION ${DATABASE_NAME};" ${DATABASE_NAME}
psql -U postgres -c "CREATE SCHEMA ${DATABASE_NAME}_password AUTHORIZATION ${DATABASE_NAME}_password;" ${DATABASE_NAME}
psql -U postgres -c "GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA ${DATABASE_NAME} TO ${DATABASE_NAME}_password;" ${DATABASE_NAME}
psql -U postgres -c "GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA ${DATABASE_NAME}_password TO ${DATABASE_NAME};" ${DATABASE_NAME}

You’ll need to modify the code to load the extension to specify the schema:

psql -U postgres -c "CREATE EXTENSION citext SCHEMA ${DATABASE_NAME}" ${DATABASE_NAME}

When running the migration for the ph user you’ll need to modify a couple things for the schema changes:

create_table(:account_password_hashes) do
  foreign_key :id, Sequel[:${DATABASE_NAME}][:accounts], primary_key: true, type: :Bignum
  String :password_hash, null: false
end
Rodauth.create_database_authentication_functions(self, table_name: Sequel[:${DATABASE_NAME}_password][:account_password_hashes])

# if using the disallow_password_reuse feature:
create_table(:account_previous_password_hashes) do
  primary_key :id, type: :Bignum
  foreign_key :account_id, Sequel[:${DATABASE_NAME}][:accounts], type: :Bignum
  String :password_hash, null: false
end
Rodauth.create_database_previous_password_check_functions(self, table_name: Sequel[:${DATABASE_NAME}_password][:account_previous_password_hashes])

You’ll also need to use the following Rodauth configuration methods so that the app account calls functions in a separate schema:

function_name do |name|
  "${DATABASE_NAME}_password.#{name}"
end
password_hash_table Sequel[:${DATABASE_NAME}_password][:account_password_hashes]

# if using the disallow_password_reuse feature:
previous_password_hash_table Sequel[:${DATABASE_NAME}_password][:account_previous_password_hashes]

MySQL Database Setup¶ ↑

MySQL does not have the concept of object owners, and MySQL’s GRANT/REVOKE support is much more limited than PostgreSQL’s. When using MySQL, it is recommended to GRANT the ph account ALL privileges on the database, including the ability to GRANT permissions to the app account:

CREATE USER '${DATABASE_NAME}'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '${PASSWORD}';
CREATE USER '${DATABASE_NAME}_password'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '${OTHER_PASSWORD}';
GRANT ALL ON ${DATABASE_NAME}.* TO '${DATABASE_NAME}_password'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION;

You should run all migrations as the ph account, and GRANT specific access to the app account as needed.

Adding the database functions on MySQL may require setting the log_bin_trust_function_creators=1 setting in the MySQL configuration.

Microsoft SQL Server Database Setup¶ ↑

Microsoft SQL Server has a concept of database owners, but similar to MySQL usage it’s recommended to use the ph account as the superuser for the database, and have it GRANT permissions to the app account:

CREATE LOGIN rodauth_test WITH PASSWORD = 'rodauth_test';
CREATE LOGIN rodauth_test_password WITH PASSWORD = 'rodauth_test';
CREATE DATABASE rodauth_test;
USE rodauth_test;
CREATE USER rodauth_test FOR LOGIN rodauth_test;
GRANT CONNECT, EXECUTE TO rodauth_test;
EXECUTE sp_changedbowner 'rodauth_test_password';

You should run all migrations as the ph account, and GRANT specific access to the app account as needed.

Creating tables¶ ↑

Because two different database accounts are used, two different migrations are required, one for each database account. Here are example migrations. You can modify them to add support for additional columns, or remove tables or columns related to features that you don’t need.

First migration. On PostgreSQL, this should be run with the app account, on MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server this should be run with the ph account.

Note that these migrations require Sequel 4.35.0+.

Sequel.migration do
  up do
    extension :date_arithmetic

    # Used by the account verification and close account features
    create_table(:account_statuses) do
      Integer :id, primary_key: true
      String :name, null: false, unique: true
    end
    from(:account_statuses).import([:id, :name], [[1, 'Unverified'], [2, 'Verified'], [3, 'Closed']])

    db = self
    create_table(:accounts) do
      primary_key :id, type: :Bignum
      foreign_key :status_id, :account_statuses, null: false, default: 1
      if db.database_type == :postgres
        citext :email, null: false
        constraint :valid_email, email: /^[^,;@ \r\n]+@[^,@; \r\n]+\.[^,@; \r\n]+$/
      else
        String :email, null: false
      end
      if db.supports_partial_indexes?
        index :email, unique: true, where: {status_id: [1, 2]}
      else
        index :email, unique: true
      end
    end

    deadline_opts = proc do |days|
      if database_type == :mysql
        {null: false}
      else
        {null: false, default: Sequel.date_add(Sequel::CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, days: days)}
      end
    end

    # Used by the audit logging feature
    json_type = case database_type
    when :postgres
      :jsonb
    when :sqlite, :mysql
      :json
    else
      String
    end
    create_table(:account_authentication_audit_logs) do
      primary_key :id, type: :Bignum
      foreign_key :account_id, :accounts, null: false, type: :Bignum
      DateTime :at, null: false, default: Sequel::CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
      String :message, null: false
      column :metadata, json_type
      index [:account_id, :at], name: :audit_account_at_idx
      index :at, name: :audit_at_idx
    end

    # Used by the password reset feature
    create_table(:account_password_reset_keys) do
      foreign_key :id, :accounts, primary_key: true, type: :Bignum
      String :key, null: false
      DateTime :deadline, deadline_opts[1]
      DateTime :email_last_sent, null: false, default: Sequel::CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
    end

    # Used by the jwt refresh feature
    create_table(:account_jwt_refresh_keys) do
      primary_key :id, type: :Bignum
      foreign_key :account_id, :accounts, null: false, type: :Bignum
      String :key, null: false
      DateTime :deadline, deadline_opts[1]
      index :account_id, name: :account_jwt_rk_account_id_idx
    end

    # Used by the account verification feature
    create_table(:account_verification_keys) do
      foreign_key :id, :accounts, primary_key: true, type: :Bignum
      String :key, null: false
      DateTime :requested_at, null: false, default: Sequel::CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
      DateTime :email_last_sent, null: false, default: Sequel::CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
    end

    # Used by the verify login change feature
    create_table(:account_login_change_keys) do
      foreign_key :id, :accounts, primary_key: true, type: :Bignum
      String :key, null: false
      String :login, null: false
      DateTime :deadline, deadline_opts[1]
    end

    # Used by the remember me feature
    create_table(:account_remember_keys) do
      foreign_key :id, :accounts, primary_key: true, type: :Bignum
      String :key, null: false
      DateTime :deadline, deadline_opts[14]
    end

    # Used by the lockout feature
    create_table(:account_login_failures) do
      foreign_key :id, :accounts, primary_key: true, type: :Bignum
      Integer :number, null: false, default: 1
    end
    create_table(:account_lockouts) do
      foreign_key :id, :accounts, primary_key: true, type: :Bignum
      String :key, null: false
      DateTime :deadline, deadline_opts[1]
      DateTime :email_last_sent
    end

    # Used by the email auth feature
    create_table(:account_email_auth_keys) do
      foreign_key :id, :accounts, primary_key: true, type: :Bignum
      String :key, null: false
      DateTime :deadline, deadline_opts[1]
      DateTime :email_last_sent, null: false, default: Sequel::CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
    end

    # Used by the password expiration feature
    create_table(:account_password_change_times) do
      foreign_key :id, :accounts, primary_key: true, type: :Bignum
      DateTime :changed_at, null: false, default: Sequel::CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
    end

    # Used by the account expiration feature
    create_table(:account_activity_times) do
      foreign_key :id, :accounts, primary_key: true, type: :Bignum
      DateTime :last_activity_at, null: false
      DateTime :last_login_at, null: false
      DateTime :expired_at
    end

    # Used by the single session feature
    create_table(:account_session_keys) do
      foreign_key :id, :accounts, primary_key: true, type: :Bignum
      String :key, null: false
    end

    # Used by the active sessions feature
    create_table(:account_active_session_keys) do
      foreign_key :account_id, :accounts, type: :Bignum
      String :session_id
      Time :created_at, null: false, default: Sequel::CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
      Time :last_use, null: false, default: Sequel::CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
      primary_key [:account_id, :session_id]
    end

    # Used by the webauthn feature
    create_table(:account_webauthn_user_ids) do
      foreign_key :id, :accounts, primary_key: true, type: :Bignum
      String :webauthn_id, null: false
    end
    create_table(:account_webauthn_keys) do
      foreign_key :account_id, :accounts, type: :Bignum
      String :webauthn_id
      String :public_key, null: false
      Integer :sign_count, null: false
      Time :last_use, null: false, default: Sequel::CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
      primary_key [:account_id, :webauthn_id]
    end

    # Used by the otp feature
    create_table(:account_otp_keys) do
      foreign_key :id, :accounts, primary_key: true, type: :Bignum
      String :key, null: false
      Integer :num_failures, null: false, default: 0
      Time :last_use, null: false, default: Sequel::CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
    end

    # Used by the recovery codes feature
    create_table(:account_recovery_codes) do
      foreign_key :id, :accounts, type: :Bignum
      String :code
      primary_key [:id, :code]
    end

    # Used by the sms codes feature
    create_table(:account_sms_codes) do
      foreign_key :id, :accounts, primary_key: true, type: :Bignum
      String :phone_number, null: false
      Integer :num_failures
      String :code
      DateTime :code_issued_at, null: false, default: Sequel::CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
    end

    case database_type
    when :postgres
      user = get(Sequel.lit('current_user')) + '_password'
      run "GRANT REFERENCES ON accounts TO #{user}"
    when :mysql, :mssql
      user = if database_type == :mysql
        get(Sequel.lit('current_user')).sub(/_password@/, '@')
      else
        get(Sequel.function(:DB_NAME))
      end
      run "GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_statuses TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON accounts TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_authentication_audit_logs TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_password_reset_keys TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_jwt_refresh_keys TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_verification_keys TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_login_change_keys TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_remember_keys TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_login_failures TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_email_auth_keys TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_lockouts TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_password_change_times TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_activity_times TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_session_keys TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_active_session_keys TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_webauthn_user_ids TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_webauthn_keys TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_otp_keys TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_recovery_codes TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_sms_codes TO #{user}"
    end
  end

  down do
    drop_table(:account_sms_codes,
               :account_recovery_codes,
               :account_otp_keys,
               :account_webauthn_keys,
               :account_webauthn_user_ids,
               :account_session_keys,
               :account_active_session_keys,
               :account_activity_times,
               :account_password_change_times,
               :account_email_auth_keys,
               :account_lockouts,
               :account_login_failures,
               :account_remember_keys,
               :account_login_change_keys,
               :account_verification_keys,
               :account_jwt_refresh_keys,
               :account_password_reset_keys,
               :account_authentication_audit_logs,
               :accounts,
               :account_statuses)
  end
end

Second migration, run using the ph account:

require 'rodauth/migrations'

Sequel.migration do
  up do
    create_table(:account_password_hashes) do
      foreign_key :id, :accounts, primary_key: true, type: :Bignum
      String :password_hash, null: false
    end
    Rodauth.create_database_authentication_functions(self)
    case database_type
    when :postgres
      user = get(Sequel.lit('current_user')).sub(/_password\z/, '')
      run "REVOKE ALL ON account_password_hashes FROM public"
      run "REVOKE ALL ON FUNCTION rodauth_get_salt(int8) FROM public"
      run "REVOKE ALL ON FUNCTION rodauth_valid_password_hash(int8, text) FROM public"
      run "GRANT INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_password_hashes TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT(id) ON account_password_hashes TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION rodauth_get_salt(int8) TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION rodauth_valid_password_hash(int8, text) TO #{user}"
    when :mysql
      user = get(Sequel.lit('current_user')).sub(/_password@/, '@')
      db_name = get(Sequel.function(:database))
      run "GRANT EXECUTE ON #{db_name}.* TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_password_hashes TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT (id) ON account_password_hashes TO #{user}"
    when :mssql
      user = get(Sequel.function(:DB_NAME))
      run "GRANT EXECUTE ON rodauth_get_salt TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT EXECUTE ON rodauth_valid_password_hash TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_password_hashes TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT ON account_password_hashes(id) TO #{user}"
    end

    # Used by the disallow_password_reuse feature
    create_table(:account_previous_password_hashes) do
      primary_key :id, type: :Bignum
      foreign_key :account_id, :accounts, type: :Bignum
      String :password_hash, null: false
    end
    Rodauth.create_database_previous_password_check_functions(self)

    case database_type
    when :postgres
      user = get(Sequel.lit('current_user')).sub(/_password\z/, '')
      run "REVOKE ALL ON account_previous_password_hashes FROM public"
      run "REVOKE ALL ON FUNCTION rodauth_get_previous_salt(int8) FROM public"
      run "REVOKE ALL ON FUNCTION rodauth_previous_password_hash_match(int8, text) FROM public"
      run "GRANT INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_previous_password_hashes TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT(id, account_id) ON account_previous_password_hashes TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT USAGE ON account_previous_password_hashes_id_seq TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION rodauth_get_previous_salt(int8) TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION rodauth_previous_password_hash_match(int8, text) TO #{user}"
    when :mysql
      user = get(Sequel.lit('current_user')).sub(/_password@/, '@')
      db_name = get(Sequel.function(:database))
      run "GRANT EXECUTE ON #{db_name}.* TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_previous_password_hashes TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT (id, account_id) ON account_previous_password_hashes TO #{user}"
    when :mssql
      user = get(Sequel.function(:DB_NAME))
      run "GRANT EXECUTE ON rodauth_get_previous_salt TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT EXECUTE ON rodauth_previous_password_hash_match TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON account_previous_password_hashes TO #{user}"
      run "GRANT SELECT ON account_previous_password_hashes(id, account_id) TO #{user}"
    end
  end

  down do
    Rodauth.drop_database_previous_password_check_functions(self)
    Rodauth.drop_database_authentication_functions(self)
    drop_table(:account_previous_password_hashes, :account_password_hashes)
  end
end

To support multiple separate migration users, you can run the migration for the password user using Sequel’s migration API:

Sequel.extension :migration
Sequel.postgres('DATABASE_NAME', user: 'PASSWORD_USER_NAME') do |db|
  Sequel::Migrator.run(db, 'path/to/password_user/migrations', table: 'schema_info_password')
end

If the database is not PostgreSQL, MySQL, or Microsoft SQL Server, or you cannot use multiple user accounts, just combine the two migrations into a single migration, removing all the code related to database permissions and database functions.

One thing to notice in the above migrations is that Rodauth uses additional tables for additional features, instead of additional columns in a single table.

Revoking schema rights (PostgreSQL 15+)¶ ↑

If you explicit granted access to the public schema before running the migration, revoke it afterward:

psql -U postgres -c "REVOKE CREATE ON SCHEMA public FROM ${DATABASE_NAME}_password" ${DATABASE_NAME}

Locking Down (PostgreSQL only)¶ ↑

After running the migrations, you can increase security slightly by making it not possible for the ph account to login to the database directly. This can be accomplished by modifying the pg_hba.conf file. You can also consider restricting access using GRANT/REVOKE.

You can restrict access to the database itself to just the app account. You can run this using the app account, since that account owns the database:

GRANT ALL ON DATABASE ${DATABASE_NAME} TO ${DATABASE_NAME};
REVOKE ALL ON DATABASE ${DATABASE_NAME} FROM public;

You can also restrict access to the public schema (this is not needed if you are using a custom schema). Note that by default, the database superuser owns the public schema, so you have to run this as the database superuser account (generally postgres):

GRANT ALL ON SCHEMA public TO ${DATABASE_NAME};
GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA public TO ${DATABASE_NAME}_password;
REVOKE ALL ON SCHEMA public FROM public;

If you are using MySQL or Microsoft SQL Server, please consult their documentation for how to restrict access so that the ph account cannot login directly.

Usage¶ ↑

Basic Usage¶ ↑

Rodauth is a Roda plugin and loaded the same way other Roda plugins are loaded:

plugin :rodauth do
end

The block passed to the plugin call uses the Rodauth configuration DSL. The one configuration method that should always be used is enable, which chooses which features you would like to load:

plugin :rodauth do
  enable :login, :logout
end

Once features are loaded, you can use any of the configuration methods supported by the features. There are two types of configuration methods. The first type are called auth methods, and they take a block which overrides the default method that Rodauth uses. Inside the block, you can call super if you want to get the default behavior, though you must provide explicit arguments to super. There is no need to call super in before or after hooks, though. For example, if you want to add additional logging when a user logs in:

plugin :rodauth do
  enable :login, :logout
  after_login do
    LOGGER.info "#{account[:email]} logged in!"
  end
end

Inside the block, you are in the context of the Rodauth::Auth instance related to the request. This object has access to everything related to the request via methods:

request: RodaRequest instance
response: RodaResponse instance
scope: Roda instance
session: session hash
flash: flash message hash
account: account hash (if set by an earlier Rodauth method)

So if you want to log the IP address for the user during login:

plugin :rodauth do
  enable :login, :logout
  after_login do
    LOGGER.info "#{account[:email]} logged in from #{request.ip}"
  end
end

The second type of configuration methods are called auth value methods. They are similar to auth methods, but instead of just accepting a block, they can optionally accept a single argument without a block, which will be treated as a block that just returns that value. For example, the accounts_table method sets the database table storing accounts, so to override it, you can call the method with a symbol for the table:

plugin :rodauth do
  enable :login, :logout
  accounts_table :users
end

Note that all auth value methods can still take a block, allowing overriding for all behavior, using any information from the request:

plugin :rodauth do
  enable :login, :logout
  accounts_table do
    request.ip.start_with?("192.168.1.") ? :admins : :users
  end
end

By allowing every configuration method to take a block, Rodauth should be flexible enough to integrate into most legacy systems.

Plugin Options¶ ↑

When loading the rodauth plugin, you can also pass an options hash, which configures which dependent plugins should be loaded. Options:

:csrf: Set to false to not load a csrf plugin. Set to :rack_csrf to use the csrf plugin instead of the route_csrf plugin.
:flash: Set to false to not load the flash plugin
:render: Set to false to not load the render plugin. This is useful to avoid the dependency on tilt when using alternative view libaries.
:json: Set to true to load the json and json_parser plugins. Set to :only to only load those plugins and not any other plugins. Note that if you are enabling features that send email, you still need to load the render plugin manually.
:name: Provide a name for the given Rodauth configuration, used to support multiple Rodauth configurations in a given Roda application.
:auth_class: Provide a specific Rodauth::Auth subclass that should be set on the Roda application. By default, an anonymous Rodauth::Auth subclass is created.

Feature Documentation¶ ↑

The options/methods for the supported features are listed on a separate page per feature. If these links are not active, please view the appropriate file in the doc directory.

Base (this feature is autoloaded)
Login Password Requirements Base (this feature is autoloaded by features that set logins/passwords)
Email Base (this feature is autoloaded by features that send email)
Two Factor Base (this feature is autoloaded by 2 factor authentication features)
Account Expiration
Active Sessions
Audit Logging
Argon2
Change Login
Change Password
Change Password Notify
Close Account
Confirm Password
Create Account
Disallow Common Passwords
Disallow Password Reuse
Email Authentication
HTTP Basic Auth
Internal Request
JSON
JWT CORS
JWT Refresh
JWT
Lockout
Login
Logout
OTP
Password Complexity
Password Expiration
Password Grace Period
Password Pepper
Path Class Methods
Recovery Codes
Remember
Reset Password
Reset Password Notify
Session Expiration
Single Session
SMS Codes
Update Password Hash
Verify Account
Verify Account Grace Period
Verify Login Change
WebAuthn
WebAuthn Autofill
WebAuthn Login
WebAuthn Verify Account

Calling Rodauth in the Routing Tree¶ ↑

In general, you will usually want to call r.rodauth early in your route block:

route do |r|
  r.rodauth

  # ...
end

Note that will allow Rodauth to run, but it won’t force people to login or add any security to your site. If you want to force all users to login, you need to redirect to them login page if they are not already logged in:

route do |r|
  r.rodauth
  rodauth.require_authentication

  # ...
end

If only certain parts of your site require logins, then you can only redirect if they are not logged in certain branches of the routing tree:

route do |r|
  r.rodauth

  r.on "admin" do
    rodauth.require_authentication

    # ...
  end

  # ...
end

In some cases you may want to have rodauth run inside a branch of the routing tree, instead of in the root. You can do this by setting a :prefix when configuring Rodauth, and calling r.rodauth inside a matching routing tree branch:

plugin :rodauth do
  enable :login, :logout
  prefix "/auth"
end

route do |r|
  r.on "auth" do
    r.rodauth
  end

  rodauth.require_authentication

  # ...
end

`rodauth` Methods¶ ↑

Most of Rodauth’s functionality is exposed via r.rodauth, which allows Rodauth to handle routes for the features you have enabled (such as /login for login). However, as you have seen above, you may want to call methods on the rodauth object, such as for checking if the current request has been authenticated.

Here are methods designed to be callable on the rodauth object outside r.rodauth:

require_login: Require the session be logged in, redirecting the request to the login page if the request has not been logged in.
require_authentication: Similar to require_login, but also requires two factor authentication if the account has setup two factor authentication. Redirects the request to the two factor authentication page if logged in but not authenticated via two factors.
require_account: Similar to require_authentication, but also loads the logged in account to ensure it exists in the database. If the account doesn’t exist, or if it exists but isn’t verified, the session is cleared and the request redirected to the login page.
logged_in?: Whether the session has been logged in.
authenticated?: Similar to logged_in?, but if the account has setup two factor authentication, whether the session has authenticated via two factors.
account!: Returns the current account record if it has already been loaded, otherwise retrieves the account from session if logged in.
authenticated_by: An array of strings for successful authentication methods for the current session (e.g. password/remember/webauthn).
possible_authentication_methods: An array of strings for possible authentication types that can be used for the account.
autologin_type: If the current session was authenticated via autologin, the type of autologin used.
require_two_factor_setup: (two_factor_base feature) Require the session to have setup two factor authentication, redirecting the request to the two factor authentication setup page if not.
uses_two_factor_authentication?: (two_factor_base feature) Whether the account for the current session has setup two factor authentication.
update_last_activity: (account_expiration feature) Update the last activity time for the current account. Only makes sense to use this if you are expiring accounts based on last activity.
require_current_password: (password_expiration feature) Require a current password, redirecting the request to the change password page if the password for the account has expired.
require_password_authentication: (confirm_password feature) If not authenticated via password and the account has a password, redirect to the password confirmation page, saving the current location to redirect back to after password has been successfully confirmed. If the password_grace_period feature is used, also redirect if the password has not been recently entered.
load_memory: (remember feature) If the session has not been authenticated, look for the remember cookie. If present and valid, automatically log the session in, but mark that it was logged in via a remember key.
logged_in_via_remember_key?: (remember feature) Whether the current session has been logged in via a remember key. For security sensitive actions where you want to require the user to reenter the password, you can use the confirm_password feature.
http_basic_auth: (http_basic_auth feature) Use HTTP Basic Authentication information to login the user if provided.
require_http_basic_auth: (http_basic_auth feature) Require that HTTP Basic Authentication be provided in the request.
check_session_expiration: (session_expiration feature) Check whether the current session has expired, automatically logging the session out if so.
check_active_session: (active_sessions feature) Check whether the current session is still active, automatically logging the session out if not.
check_single_session: (single_session feature) Check whether the current session is still the only valid session, automatically logging the session out if not.
verified_account?: (verify_grace_period feature) Whether the account is currently verified. If false, it is because the account is allowed to login as they are in the grace period.
locked_out?: (lockout feature) Whether the account for the current session has been locked out.
authenticated_webauthn_id: (webauthn feature) If the current session was authenticated via webauthn, the webauthn id of the credential used.
*_path: One of these is added for each of the routes added by Rodauth, giving the relative path to the route. Any options passed to this method will be converted into query parameters.
*_url: One of these is added for each of the routes added by Rodauth, giving the URL to the route. Any options passed to this method will be converted into query parameters.

Calling Rodauth Methods for Other Accounts¶ ↑

In some cases, you may want to interact with Rodauth directly on behalf of a user. For example, let’s say you want to create accounts or change passwords for existing accounts. Using Rodauth’s internal_request feature, you can do this by:

plugin :rodauth do
  enable :create_account, :change_password, :internal_request
end
rodauth.create_account(login: 'foo@example.com', password: '...')
rodauth.change_password(account_id: 24601, password: '...')

Here the rodauth method is called as the Roda class level, which returns the appropriate Rodauth::Auth subclass. You call internal request methods on that class to perform actions on behalf of a user. See the internal request feature documentation for details.

Using Rodauth as a Library¶ ↑

Rodauth was designed to serve as an authentication framework for Rack applications. However, Rodauth can be used purely as a library outside of a web application. You can do this by requiring rodauth, and using the Rodauth.lib method to return a Rodauth::Auth subclass, which you can call methods on. You pass the Rodauth.lib method an optional hash of Rodauth plugin options and a Rodauth configuration block:

require 'rodauth'
rodauth = Rodauth.lib do
  enable :create_account, :change_password
end
rodauth.create_account(login: 'foo@example.com', password: '...')
rodauth.change_password(account_id: 24601, password: '...')

This supports builds on top of the internal_request support (it implicitly loads the internal_request feature before processing the configuration block), and allows the use of Rodauth in non-web applications. Note that you still have to setup a Sequel::Database connection for Rodauth to use for data storage.

With Multiple Configurations¶ ↑

Rodauth supports using multiple rodauth configurations in the same application. You just need to load the plugin a second time, providing a name for any alternate configuration:

plugin :rodauth do
end
plugin :rodauth, name: :secondary do
end

Then in your routing code, any time you call rodauth, you can provide the name as an argument to use that configuration:

route do |r|
  r.on 'secondary' do
    r.rodauth(:secondary)
  end

  r.rodauth
end

By default, alternate configurations will use the same session keys as the primary configuration, which may be undesirable. To ensure session state is separated between configurations, you can set a session key prefix for alternate configurations. If you are using the remember feature in both configurations, you may also want to set a different remember key in the alternate configuration:

plugin :rodauth, name: :secondary do
  session_key_prefix "secondary_"
  remember_cookie_key "_secondary_remember"
end

With Password Hashes Inside the Accounts Table¶ ↑

You can use Rodauth if you are storing password hashes in the same table as the accounts. You just need to specify which column stores the password hash:

plugin :rodauth do
  account_password_hash_column :password_hash
end

When this option is set, Rodauth will do the password hash check in ruby.

When Using PostgreSQL/MySQL/Microsoft SQL Server without Database Functions¶ ↑

If you want to use Rodauth on PostgreSQL, MySQL, or Microsoft SQL Server without using database functions for authentication, but still storing password hashes in a separate table, you can do so:

plugin :rodauth do
  use_database_authentication_functions? false
end

Conversely, if you implement the rodauth_get_salt and rodauth_valid_password_hash functions on a database that isn’t PostgreSQL, MySQL, or Microsoft SQL Server, you can set this value to true.

With Custom Authentication¶ ↑

You can use Rodauth with other authentication types, by using some of Rodauth’s configuration methods.

Note that when using custom authentication, using some of Rodauth’s features such as change login and change password either would not make sense or would require some additional custom configuration. The login and logout features should work correctly with the examples below, though.

Using LDAP Authentication¶ ↑

If you have accounts stored in the database, but authentication happens via LDAP, you can use the simple_ldap_authenticator library:

require 'simple_ldap_authenticator'
plugin :rodauth do
  enable :login, :logout
  require_bcrypt? false
  password_match? do |password|
    SimpleLdapAuthenticator.valid?(account[:email], password)
  end
end

If you aren’t storing accounts in the database, but want to allow any valid LDAP user to login, you can do something like this:

require 'simple_ldap_authenticator'
plugin :rodauth do
  enable :login, :logout

  # Don't require the bcrypt library, since using LDAP for auth
  require_bcrypt? false

  # Store session value in :login key, since the :account_id
  # default wouldn't make sense
  session_key :login

  # Use the login provided as the session value
  account_session_value{account}

  # Treat the login itself as the account
  account_from_login{|l| l.to_s}

  password_match? do |password|
    SimpleLdapAuthenticator.valid?(account, password)
  end
end

Using Facebook Authentication¶ ↑

Here’s an example of authentication using Facebook with a JSON API. This setup assumes you have client-side code to submit JSON POST requests to /login with an access_token parameter that is set to the user’s Facebook OAuth access token.

require 'koala'
plugin :rodauth do
  enable :login, :logout, :jwt

  require_bcrypt? false
  session_key :facebook_email
  account_session_value{account}

  login_param 'access_token'

  account_from_login do |access_token|
    fb = Koala::Facebook::API.new(access_token)
    if me = fb.get_object('me', fields: [:email])
      me['email']
    end
  end

  # there is no password!
  password_match? do |pass|
    true
  end
end

With Rails¶ ↑

If you’re using Rails, you can use the rodauth-rails gem which provides Rails integration for Rodauth. Some of its features include:

generators for Rodauth & Sequel configuration, as well as views and mailers
uses Rails’ flash messages and CSRF protection
automatically sets HMAC secret to Rails’ secret key base
uses Action Controller & Action View for rendering templates
uses Action Mailer for sending emails

Follow the instructions in the rodauth-rails README to get started.

With Other Web Frameworks¶ ↑

You can use Rodauth even if your application does not use the Roda web framework. This is possible by adding a Roda middleware that uses Rodauth:

require 'roda'

class RodauthApp < Roda
  plugin :middleware
  plugin :rodauth do
    enable :login
  end

  route do |r|
    r.rodauth
    rodauth.require_authentication
    env['rodauth'] = rodauth
  end
end

use RodauthApp

Note that Rodauth expects the Roda app it is used in to provide a layout. So if you are using Rodauth as middleware for another app, if you don’t have a views/layout.erb file that Rodauth can use, you should probably also add load Roda’s render plugin with the appropriate settings that allow Rodauth to use the same layout as the application.

By setting env['rodauth'] = rodauth in the route block inside the middleware, you can easily provide a way for your application to call Rodauth methods.

If you’re using the remember feature with extend_remember_deadline? set to true, you’ll want to load roda’s middleware plugin with +forward_response_headers: true+ option, so that Set-Cookie header changes from the load_memory call in the route block are propagated when the request is forwarded to the main app.

Here are some examples of integrating Rodauth into applications that don’t use Roda:

Using 2 Factor Authentication¶ ↑

Rodauth ships with 2 factor authentication support via the following methods:

WebAuthn
TOTP (Time-Based One-Time Passwords, RFC 6238).
SMS Codes
Recovery Codes

There are multiple ways to integrate 2 factor authentication with Rodauth, based on the needs of the application. By default, SMS codes and recovery codes are treated only as backup 2nd factors, a user cannot enable them without first enabling another 2nd factor authentication method. However, you can change this by using a configuration method.

If you want to support but not require 2 factor authentication:

plugin :rodauth do
  enable :login, :logout, :otp, :recovery_codes, :sms_codes
end
route do |r|
  r.rodauth
  rodauth.require_authentication

  # ...
end

If you want to force all users to use 2 factor authentication, requiring users that don’t currently have two authentication to set it up:

route do |r|
  r.rodauth
  rodauth.require_authentication
  rodauth.require_two_factor_setup

  # ...
end

Similarly to requiring authentication in general, it’s possible to require login authentication for most of the site, but require 2 factor authentication only for particular branches:

route do |r|
  r.rodauth
  rodauth.require_login

  r.on "admin" do
    rodauth.require_two_factor_authenticated
  end

  # ...
end

JSON API Support¶ ↑

To add support for handling JSON responses, you can pass the :json option to the plugin, and enable the JWT feature in addition to other features you plan to use:

plugin :rodauth, json: true do
  enable :login, :logout, :jwt
end

If you do not want to load the HTML plugins that Rodauth usually loads (render, csrf, flash, h), because you are building a JSON-only API, pass :json => :only

plugin :rodauth, json: :only do
  enable :login, :logout, :jwt
end

Note that by default, the features that send email depend on the render plugin, so if using the json: :only option, you either need to load the render plugin manually or you need to use the necessary *_email_body configuration options to specify the body of the emails.

The JWT feature enables JSON API support for all of the other features that Rodauth ships with. If you would like JSON API access that still uses rack session for storing session data, enable the JSON feature instead:

plugin :rodauth, json: true do
  enable :login, :logout, :json
  only_json? true # if you want to only handle JSON requests
end

Adding Custom Methods to the `rodauth` Object¶ ↑

Inside the configuration block, you can use auth_class_eval to add custom methods that will be callable on the rodauth object.

plugin :rodauth do
  enable :login

  auth_class_eval do
    def require_admin
      request.redirect("/") unless account[:admin]
    end
  end
end

route do |r|
  r.rodauth

  r.on "admin" do
    rodauth.require_admin
  end
end

Using External Features¶ ↑

The enable configuration method is able to load features external to Rodauth. You need to place the external feature file where it can be required via rodauth/features/feature_name. That file should use the following basic structure

module Rodauth
  # :feature_name will be the argument given to enable to
  # load the feature, :FeatureName is optional and will be used to
  # set a constant name for prettier inspect output.
  Feature.define(:feature_name, :FeatureName) do
    # Shortcut for defining auth value methods with static values
    auth_value_method :method_name, 1 # method_value

    auth_value_methods # one argument per auth value method

    auth_methods # one argument per auth method

    route do |r|
      # This block is taken for requests to the feature's route.
      # This block is evaluated in the scope of the Rodauth::Auth instance.
      # r is the Roda::RodaRequest instance for the request

      r.get do
      end

      r.post do
      end
    end

    configuration_eval do
      # define additional configuration specific methods here, if any
    end

    # define the default behavior for the auth_methods
    # and auth_value_methods
    # ...
  end
end

See the internals guide for a more complete example of how to construct features.

Overriding Route-Level Behavior¶ ↑

All of Rodauth’s configuration methods change the behavior of the Rodauth::Auth instance. However, in some cases you may want to overriding handling at the routing layer. You can do this easily by adding an appropriate route before calling r.rodauth:

route do |r|
  r.post 'login' do
    # Custom POST /login handling here
  end

  r.rodauth
end

Precompiling Rodauth Templates¶ ↑

Rodauth serves templates from it’s gem folder. If you are using a forking webserver and want to preload the compiled templates to save memory, or if you are chrooting your application, you can benefit from precompiling your rodauth templates:

plugin :rodauth do
  # ...
end
precompile_rodauth_templates

Ruby Support Policy¶ ↑

Rodauth fully supports the currently supported versions of Ruby (MRI) and JRuby. It may support unsupported versions of Ruby or JRuby, but such support may be dropped in any minor version if keeping it becomes a support issue. The minimum Ruby version required to run the current version of Rodauth is 1.9.2.

Similar Projects¶ ↑

All of these are Rails-specific:

Author¶ ↑

Jeremy Evans <code@jeremyevans.net>