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Methods
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Included Modules

Instance Public methods

has_secure_password(attribute = :password, validations: true, reset_token: true, algorithm: nil)

Adds methods to set and authenticate against a BCrypt password. This mechanism requires you to have a XXX_digest attribute, where XXX is the attribute name of your desired password.

The following validations are added automatically:

  • Password must be present on creation

  • Password length should be less than or equal to 72 bytes

  • Confirmation of password (using a XXX_confirmation attribute)

If confirmation validation is not needed, simply leave out the value for XXX_confirmation (i.e. don’t provide a form field for it). When this attribute has a nil value, the validation will not be triggered.

Additionally, a XXX_challenge attribute is created. When set to a value other than nil, it will validate against the currently persisted password. This validation relies on dirty tracking, as provided by ActiveModel::Dirty; if dirty tracking methods are not defined, this validation will fail.

All of the above validations can be omitted by passing validations: false as an argument. This allows complete customizability of validation behavior.

A password reset token (valid for 15 minutes by default) is automatically configured when reset_token is set to true (which it is by default) and the object responds to generates_token_for (which Active Records do).

Finally, the reset token expiry can be customized by passing a hash to has_secure_password:

has_secure_password reset_token: { expires_in: 1.hour }

To use has_secure_password, add bcrypt (~> 3.1.7) to your Gemfile:

gem "bcrypt", "~> 3.1.7"

If you want to use a different password hashing algorithm, you can implement your own class that responds to algorithm_name, hash_password, verify_password, password_salt and validate. For an example implementation, see BCryptPassword in bcrypt_password.rb.

Examples

Using Active Record (which automatically includes ActiveModel::SecurePassword)
# Schema: User(name:string, password_digest:string, recovery_password_digest:string)
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_secure_password
  has_secure_password :recovery_password, validations: false
end

user = User.new(name: "david", password: "", password_confirmation: "nomatch")

user.password_algorithm                                        # => :bcrypt
user.save                                                      # => false, password required
user.password = "vr00m"
user.save                                                      # => false, confirmation doesn't match
user.password_confirmation = "vr00m"
user.save                                                      # => true

user.authenticate("notright")                                  # => false
user.authenticate("vr00m")                                     # => user
User.find_by(name: "david")&.authenticate("notright")          # => false
User.find_by(name: "david")&.authenticate("vr00m")             # => user

user.recovery_password = "42password"
user.recovery_password_digest                                  # => "$2a$04$iOfhwahFymCs5weB3BNH/uXkTG65HR.qpW.bNhEjFP3ftli3o5DQC"
user.save                                                      # => true

user.authenticate_recovery_password("42password")              # => user

user.update(password: "pwn3d", password_challenge: "")         # => false, challenge doesn't authenticate
user.update(password: "nohack4u", password_challenge: "vr00m") # => true

user.authenticate("vr00m")                                     # => false, old password
user.authenticate("nohack4u")                                  # => user
Conditionally requiring a password
class Account
  include ActiveModel::SecurePassword

  attr_accessor :is_guest, :password_digest

  has_secure_password

  def errors
    super.tap { |errors| errors.delete(:password, :blank) if is_guest }
  end
end

account = Account.new
account.valid? # => false, password required

account.is_guest = true
account.valid? # => true
Using the password reset token
user = User.create!(name: "david", password: "123", password_confirmation: "123")
token = user.password_reset_token
User.find_by_password_reset_token(token) # returns user

# 16 minutes later...
User.find_by_password_reset_token(token) # returns nil

# raises ActiveSupport::MessageVerifier::InvalidSignature since the token is expired
User.find_by_password_reset_token!(token)
Customizing the hashing algorithm

has_secure_password supports :bcrypt (default) and :argon2 out of the box. To use :argon2, add +gem “argon2”, “~> 2.3”+ to your Gemfile and set the algorithm option:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_secure_password algorithm: :argon2
end

To add a custom algorithm, create a class that implements hash_password, verify_password, password_salt, validate and algorithm_name methods, then register it:

class ScryptPassword
  def initialize
    require "scrypt"
  rescue LoadError
    warn "You don't have scrypt installed in your application. Please add it to your Gemfile and run bundle install."
    raise
  end

  def hash_password(unencrypted_password)
    SCrypt::Password.create(unencrypted_password)
  end

  def verify_password(password, digest)
    SCrypt::Password.new(digest) == password
  end

  def password_salt(digest)
    SCrypt::Password.new(digest).salt
  end

  def validate(_record, _attribute)
    # Scrypt has no maximum input size, no validation needed
  end

  def algorithm_name
    :scrypt
  end
end

ActiveModel::SecurePassword.register_algorithm :scrypt, ScryptPassword

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  has_secure_password algorithm: :scrypt
end
# File activemodel/lib/active_model/secure_password.rb, line 194
      def has_secure_password(attribute = :password, validations: true, reset_token: true, algorithm: nil)
        # Resolve algorithm: can be a Symbol (for registry lookup), an instance, or default to BCrypt
        algorithm = case algorithm
        when Symbol
          algorithm_class = ActiveModel::SecurePassword.lookup_algorithm(algorithm)
          raise ArgumentError, "Unknown password algorithm: #{algorithm.inspect}" unless algorithm_class
          algorithm_class.new
        when nil
          BCryptPassword.new
        else
          algorithm
        end

        include InstanceMethodsOnActivation.new(attribute, reset_token: reset_token, algorithm: algorithm)

        if validations
          include ActiveModel::Validations

          # This ensures the model has a password by checking whether the password_digest
          # is present, so that this works with both new and existing records. However,
          # when there is an error, the message is added to the password attribute instead
          # so that the error message will make sense to the end-user.
          validate do |record|
            record.errors.add(attribute, :blank) unless record.public_send("#{attribute}_digest").present?
          end

          validate do |record|
            if challenge = record.public_send(:"#{attribute}_challenge")
              digest_was = record.public_send(:"#{attribute}_digest_was") if record.respond_to?(:"#{attribute}_digest_was")

              unless digest_was.present? && algorithm.verify_password(challenge, digest_was)
                record.errors.add(:"#{attribute}_challenge")
              end
            end
          end

          # Performs password hashing algorithm-specific validations (such as a max input size)
          validate do |record|
            algorithm.validate(record, attribute)
          end

          validates_confirmation_of attribute, allow_nil: true
        end

        # Only generate tokens for records that are capable of doing so (Active Records, not vanilla Active Models)
        if reset_token && respond_to?(:generates_token_for)
          reset_token_expires_in = reset_token.is_a?(Hash) ? reset_token[:expires_in] : DEFAULT_RESET_TOKEN_EXPIRES_IN

          silence_redefinition_of_method(:"#{attribute}_reset_token_expires_in")
          define_method(:"#{attribute}_reset_token_expires_in") { reset_token_expires_in }

          generates_token_for :"#{attribute}_reset", expires_in: reset_token_expires_in do
            public_send(:"#{attribute}_salt")&.last(10)
          end

          class_eval <<-RUBY, __FILE__, __LINE__ + 1
            silence_redefinition_of_method :find_by_#{attribute}_reset_token
            def self.find_by_#{attribute}_reset_token(token)
              find_by_token_for(:#{attribute}_reset, token)
            end

            silence_redefinition_of_method :find_by_#{attribute}_reset_token!
            def self.find_by_#{attribute}_reset_token!(token)
              find_by_token_for!(:#{attribute}_reset, token)
            end
          RUBY
        end
      end