Random Devise Logout issue

Question

I have a Rails 4 Ecommerce app, and I'm using Devise for user authentication.

I'm also using ActiveAdmin, which uses Devise for it's authentication as well.

The issue I'm running into is that I'm getting logged out at random times. It almost seems like the session is being clobbered, but the session cookie stays the same. I tried removing the Devise skip_session_storage option, but no dice.

I'm storing sessions in memcached using :dalli_store.

My devise.rb looks like:

# require 'devise-encryptable'
# Use this hook to configure devise mailer, warden hooks and so forth.
# Many of these configuration options can be set straight in your model.
Devise.setup do |config|
  # The secret key used by Devise. Devise uses this key to generate
  # random tokens. Changing this key will render invalid all existing
  # confirmation, reset password and unlock tokens in the database.
  config.secret_key = '<secret_key>'

  # ==> Mailer Configuration
  # Configure the e-mail address which will be shown in Devise::Mailer,
  # note that it will be overwritten if you use your own mailer class
  # with default "from" parameter.
  # TODO:
  config.mailer_sender = 'noreply@example.com'

  # Configure the class responsible to send e-mails.
  config.mailer = 'Store::UserMailer'

  # ==> ORM configuration
  # Load and configure the ORM. Supports :active_record (default) and
  # :mongoid (bson_ext recommended) by default. Other ORMs may be
  # available as additional gems.
  require 'devise/orm/active_record'

  # ==> Configuration for any authentication mechanism
  # Configure which keys are used when authenticating a user. The default is
  # just :email. You can configure it to use [:username, :subdomain], so for
  # authenticating a user, both parameters are required. Remember that those
  # parameters are used only when authenticating and not when retrieving from
  # session. If you need permissions, you should implement that in a before filter.
  # You can also supply a hash where the value is a boolean determining whether
  # or not authentication should be aborted when the value is not present.
  # config.authentication_keys = [ :email ]

  # Configure parameters from the request object used for authentication. Each entry
  # given should be a request method and it will automatically be passed to the
  # find_for_authentication method and considered in your model lookup. For instance,
  # if you set :request_keys to [:subdomain], :subdomain will be used on authentication.
  # The same considerations mentioned for authentication_keys also apply to request_keys.
  # config.request_keys = []

  # Configure which authentication keys should be case-insensitive.
  # These keys will be downcased upon creating or modifying a user and when used
  # to authenticate or find a user. Default is :email.
  config.case_insensitive_keys = [ :email ]

  # Configure which authentication keys should have whitespace stripped.
  # These keys will have whitespace before and after removed upon creating or
  # modifying a user and when used to authenticate or find a user. Default is :email.
  config.strip_whitespace_keys = [ :email ]

  # Tell if authentication through request.params is enabled. True by default.
  # It can be set to an array that will enable params authentication only for the
  # given strategies, for example, `config.params_authenticatable = [:database]` will
  # enable it only for database (email + password) authentication.
  # config.params_authenticatable = true

  # Tell if authentication through HTTP Auth is enabled. False by default.
  # It can be set to an array that will enable http authentication only for the
  # given strategies, for example, `config.http_authenticatable = [:token]` will
  # enable it only for token authentication. The supported strategies are:
  # :database      = Support basic authentication with authentication key + password
  # :token         = Support basic authentication with token authentication key
  # :token_options = Support token authentication with options as defined in
  #                  http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionController/HttpAuthentication/Token.html
  # config.http_authenticatable = false

  # If http headers should be returned for AJAX requests. True by default.
  config.http_authenticatable_on_xhr = false

  # The realm used in Http Basic Authentication. 'Application' by default.
  # config.http_authentication_realm = 'Application'

  # It will change confirmation, password recovery and other workflows
  # to behave the same regardless if the e-mail provided was right or wrong.
  # Does not affect registerable.
  # config.paranoid = true

  # By default Devise will store the user in session. You can skip storage for
  # :http_auth and :token_auth by adding those symbols to the array below.
  # Notice that if you are skipping storage for all authentication paths, you
  # may want to disable generating routes to Devise's sessions controller by
  # passing :skip => :sessions to `devise_for` in your config/routes.rb
  # config.skip_session_storage = [:http_auth]

  # By default, Devise cleans up the CSRF token on authentication to
  # avoid CSRF token fixation attacks. This means that, when using AJAX
  # requests for sign in and sign up, you need to get a new CSRF token
  # from the server. You can disable this option at your own risk.
  config.clean_up_csrf_token_on_authentication = true

  # ==> Configuration for :database_authenticatable
  # For bcrypt, this is the cost for hashing the password and defaults to 10. If
  # using other encryptors, it sets how many times you want the password re-encrypted.
  #
  # Limiting the stretches to just one in testing will increase the performance of
  # your test suite dramatically. However, it is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED to not use
  # a value less than 10 in other environments.
  config.stretches = Rails.env.test? ? 1 : 10

  # Setup a pepper to generate the encrypted password.
  config.pepper = '<pepper_value>'

  # ==> Configuration for :confirmable
  # A period that the user is allowed to access the website even without
  # confirming his account. For instance, if set to 2.days, the user will be
  # able to access the website for two days without confirming his account,
  # access will be blocked just in the third day. Default is 0.days, meaning
  # the user cannot access the website without confirming his account.
  # config.allow_unconfirmed_access_for = 2.days

  # A period that the user is allowed to confirm their account before their
  # token becomes invalid. For example, if set to 3.days, the user can confirm
  # their account within 3 days after the mail was sent, but on the fourth day
  # their account can't be confirmed with the token any more.
  # Default is nil, meaning there is no restriction on how long a user can take
  # before confirming their account.
  # config.confirm_within = 3.days

  # If true, requires any email changes to be confirmed (exactly the same way as
  # initial account confirmation) to be applied. Requires additional unconfirmed_email
  # db field (see migrations). Until confirmed new email is stored in
  # unconfirmed email column, and copied to email column on successful confirmation.
  config.reconfirmable = false

  # Defines which key will be used when confirming an account
  # config.confirmation_keys = [ :email ]

  # ==> Configuration for :rememberable
  # The time the user will be remembered without asking for credentials again.
  # config.remember_for = 2.weeks

  # If true, extends the user's remember period when remembered via cookie.
  # config.extend_remember_period = false

  # Options to be passed to the created cookie. For instance, you can set
  # :secure => true in order to force SSL only cookies.
  # config.rememberable_options = {}

  # ==> Configuration for :validatable
  # Range for password length. Default is 8..128.
  config.password_length = 8..128

  # Email regex used to validate email formats. It simply asserts that
  # one (and only one) @ exists in the given string. This is mainly
  # to give user feedback and not to assert the e-mail validity.
  # config.email_regexp = /\A[^@]+@[^@]+\z/

  # ==> Configuration for :timeoutable
  # The time you want to timeout the user session without activity. After this
  # time the user will be asked for credentials again. Default is 30 minutes.
  # config.timeout_in = 30.minutes

  # If true, expires auth token on session timeout.
  # config.expire_auth_token_on_timeout = false

  # ==> Configuration for :lockable
  # Defines which strategy will be used to lock an account.
  # :failed_attempts = Locks an account after a number of failed attempts to sign in.
  # :none            = No lock strategy. You should handle locking by yourself.
  # config.lock_strategy = :failed_attempts

  # Defines which key will be used when locking and unlocking an account
  config.unlock_keys = [ :email ]

  # Defines which strategy will be used to unlock an account.
  # :email = Sends an unlock link to the user email
  # :time  = Re-enables login after a certain amount of time (see :unlock_in below)
  # :both  = Enables both strategies
  # :none  = No unlock strategy. You should handle unlocking by yourself.
  config.unlock_strategy = :both

  # Number of authentication tries before locking an account if lock_strategy
  # is failed attempts.
  config.maximum_attempts = 20

  # Time interval to unlock the account if :time is enabled as unlock_strategy.
  # config.unlock_in = 1.hour

  # ==> Configuration for :recoverable
  #
  # Defines which key will be used when recovering the password for an account
  # config.reset_password_keys = [ :email ]

  # Time interval you can reset your password with a reset password key.
  # Don't put a too small interval or your users won't have the time to
  # change their passwords.
  config.reset_password_within = 6.hours

  # ==> Configuration for :encryptable
  # Allow you to use another encryption algorithm besides bcrypt (default). You can use
  # :sha1, :sha512 or encryptors from others authentication tools as :clearance_sha1,
  # :authlogic_sha512 (then you should set stretches above to 20 for default behavior)
  # and :restful_authentication_sha1 (then you should set stretches to 10, and copy
  # REST_AUTH_SITE_KEY to pepper).
  #
  # Require the `devise-encryptable` gem when using anything other than bcrypt
  # config.encryptor = :sha512

  # ==> Configuration for :token_authenticatable
  # Defines name of the authentication token params key
  config.token_authentication_key = :auth_token

  # ==> Scopes configuration
  # Turn scoped views on. Before rendering "sessions/new", it will first check for
  # "users/sessions/new". It's turned off by default because it's slower if you
  # are using only default views.
  config.scoped_views = false

  # Configure the default scope given to Warden. By default it's the first
  # devise role declared in your routes (usually :user).
  # config.default_scope = :user

  # Set this configuration to false if you want /users/sign_out to sign out
  # only the current scope. By default, Devise signs out all scopes.
  config.sign_out_all_scopes = false

  # ==> Navigation configuration
  # Lists the formats that should be treated as navigational. Formats like
  # :html, should redirect to the sign in page when the user does not have
  # access, but formats like :xml or :json, should return 401.
  #
  # If you have any extra navigational formats, like :iphone or :mobile, you
  # should add them to the navigational formats lists.
  #
  # The "*/*" below is required to match Internet Explorer requests.
  config.navigational_formats = ['*/*', :json, :html]

  DeviseController.respond_to :html, :json

  # The default HTTP method used to sign out a resource. Default is :delete.
  config.sign_out_via = :delete

  # ==> OmniAuth
  # Add a new OmniAuth provider. Check the wiki for more information on setting
  # up on your models and hooks.
  # config.omniauth :github, 'APP_ID', 'APP_SECRET', :scope => 'user,public_repo'

  # ==> Warden configuration
  # If you want to use other strategies, that are not supported by Devise, or
  # change the failure app, you can configure them inside the config.warden block.
  #
  config.warden do |manager|
    manager.failure_app = ::FailureApp
  end

  # ==> Mountable engine configurations
  # When using Devise inside an engine, let's call it `MyEngine`, and this engine
  # is mountable, there are some extra configurations to be taken into account.
  # The following options are available, assuming the engine is mounted as:
  #
  #     mount MyEngine, at: '/my_engine'
  #
  # The router that invoked `devise_for`, in the example above, would be:
  # config.router_name = :store
  #
  # When using omniauth, Devise cannot automatically set Omniauth path,
  # so you need to do it manually. For the users scope, it would be:
  # config.omniauth_path_prefix = '/my_engine/users/auth'
end

And the User.rb:

module Store
  class User < DataModels::User

    devise :confirmable, :rememberable, :async, :database_authenticatable, :registerable,
           :recoverable, :validatable

    validates :firstname,
              :lastname,
              presence: true,
              allow_blank: false,
              allow_nil: false


    belongs_to :group, touch: true
    belongs_to :shipping, class_name: "Address"
    belongs_to :billing, class_name: "Address"

    has_many :sales, as: :saleable
    has_many :orders

    # Rest removed for brevity
  end
end

Any pointers? I've spent all day googling and digging into Devise and Warden's source code, to no avail.

Answer 1

We never did figure out what exactly was the issue, but I'm guessing memcached was sweeping up the sessions for some reason.

We switched to storing sessions in the DB, and we haven't seen this issue since.

Answer 2

Few things:

• What version of ActiveAdmin are you using?
• What does the :async devise option do?
• What is the source of your Warden ::FailureApp?

Are you sure that it is actually Devise logging you out and not ActiveAdmin not authorizing you for an action via CanCan, or your own custom :authorization_adapter? Seems unlikely that this would be intermittent, but would be easy to check by configuring AA to use your own method in an ApplicationController so you can inspect the exception, current user and all that via Pry when it does occur.