Hi everybody.

I’d like to announce that Devise v2.2.3, v2.1.3, v2.0.5 and v1.5.4 have been released with a security patch. Upgrade immediately unless you are using PostgreSQL or SQLite3. Users of all other databases (including NoSQL ones) require immediate upgrade.

Using a specially crafted request, an attacker could trick the database type conversion code to return incorrect records. For some token values this could allow an attacker to bypass the proper checks and gain control of other accounts.

In case you are using a Devise series older than the ones listed above, recommendations are provided below back to v1.2 series. Regardless, an upgrade to more recent versions is advised.

Versions affected

We checked all Devise versions released in the previous two years and recommendations follows as below.

v1.5, v2.0, v2.1 and v2.2 series

You can upgrade to any of v2.2.3, v2.1.3, v2.0.5 and v1.5.4. In case an upgrade is not feasible, please add the following patch to config/initializers/devise_patch.rb inside your Rails application:

Devise::ParamFilter.class_eval do
  def param_requires_string_conversion?(_value); true; end
end

v1.4 series

Please add the following patch to config/initializers/devise_patch.rb inside your Rails application:

Devise::Models::Authenticatable::ClassMethods.class_eval do
  def auth_param_requires_string_conversion?(value); true; end
end

Please upgrade to more recent versions.

v1.2 and v1.3 series

Not affected by this vulnerability. Please upgrade to more recent versions.

Upgrade notice

When upgrading to any of v2.2.3, v2.1.3, v2.0.5 and v1.5.4, some people may be relying on some wrong behaviour to filter data retrieved on authentication. For example, one may have writen in his model:

def find_for_authentication(conditions)
  conditions[:active] = true
  super
end

The code above may no longer work and needs to be rewriten as:

def find_for_authentication(conditions)
  find_first_by_auth_conditions(conditions, active: true)
end

Thank you notes

We would like to thank joernchen of Phenoelit for disclosing this vulnerability and working with us on a patch.