cancan skip_authorization_check for Devise authentication

Question

Because anyone can sign up and then log in,... and because a user isn't identified for roles until after log in, doesn't it make sense to skip authorization_check for Devise?

Going on that premise, i inherit from the Devise registration controller with this registrations_controller and placed it in the controller directory.

class Users::RegistrationsController < Devise::RegistrationsController
  skip_authorization_check
end

change to the routes file:

devise_for :users, :controllers => { :registrations => "registrations" }

I'm missing something though:

This action failed the check_authorization because it does not authorize_resource. Add skip_authorization_check to bypass this check.

Thanks for your help.

Tunisia

@RyanBigg, when i get past this issue, i'm going to see if your answer to the prior question is the correct one for the app. Thanks. – Tunisia

@Hosemeyer, I need to get past this issue before i can follow your advice in the other question. Thanks for your help. – Tunisia

Answer 1

The easy solution

check_authorization :unless => :devise_controller?

If you have to put check_authorization in every controller manually at some point you will forget and open a security hole in your app. It's better to explicitly whitelist controllers that don't need auth by cancan.

This is made clear in the CANCAN docs at

https://github.com/ryanb/cancan/wiki/Ensure-Authorization

EDIT

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  check_authorization :unless => :do_not_check_authorization?
  private
  def do_not_check_authorization?
    respond_to?(:devise_controller?) or
    condition_one? or
    condition_two?
  end

  def condition_one?
   ...
  end

  def condition_two?
   ...
  end
end

Girt

Thanks bradgonesurfing +1. When I come back to revise and test this code, I'll change accepted answer if it all works out your way. – Tunisia

The answer is still with Mr Bigg which is scored at (-1) – Girt

Problem I am having is that, in addition to the devise controller, there are two other controllers I would like to skip. I have been unable to modify the 'unless' condition to add those. I could put 'skip_authorization_check' in those, but it would be better if there were only one location in the app that handled all exceptions. – Tunisia

It's easy and outlined in the docs as well. I've updated the answer with an example of creating a more complex condition. – Girt

For others reading this I'd suggest not using or in your boolean checks you should really be using ||. Otherwise, great answer. – Colvin

just wanted to point out that :do_not_check_authorization? should return false in order to skip authorization. if you use :if => ... instead then this will expect true to skip. – Hawkeyed

@Colvin Why shouldn't we use or? – Windstorm

@Windstorm It used to be the case that they behaved differently. It looks like Ruby 2.0 may have changed that, but old habits die hard. estebanpastorino.com/2013/09/12/… – Colvin

For anyone using customised devise controllers, I think it works the same for those too. I added what I know here https://mcmap.net/q/662588/-check_authorization-causes-custom-devise-controller-to-fail – Shari