# Http\_authentication

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/http-authentication/150628>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [October 10, 2008, 4:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/http-authentication/150628 "2008-10-10T16:47:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![g1g1g1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@g1g1g1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/g1g1g1)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 4:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/http-authentication/150628/1 "2008-10-10T16:47:41Z")

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Hi All,

Just a question regarding the http\_authentication plugin for rails  
(for those that have experience with it).

I’ve written a very simple rails app that allows a user to download a  
csv file from a server. The user authenticates using  
http\_authentication. This works fine on our dev server (which uses  
webrick) but won’t work on our live server (which uses mongrel).

Below are the http headers received from the servers:

* * *

[Jeff@localhost tmp]$ telnet localhost 3000  
…  
GET /interoperate/call\_records HTTP/1.0

HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized  
Cache-Control: no-cache  
Connection: close  
Date: Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:26:54 GMT  
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8  
WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm=“Interoperate”  
Server: WEBrick/1.3.1 (Ruby/1.8.5/2006-08-25)  
Content-Length: 27  
Set-Cookie: \_session\_id=aadb5e802bd52612cf1e50ab76a1f25f; path=/

HTTP Basic: Access denied.

* * *

[Jeff@localhost tmp]$ telnet [xxx.com](http://xxx.com) 80  
…  
GET /interoperate/call\_records HTTP/1.0

HTTP/1.1 0  
Connection: close  
Date: Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:20:51 GMT  
Set-Cookie: \_session\_id=b7a58bf53f4ec97bee3c667d3d161c76; path=/  
WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm=“Interoperate”  
Status: unauthorized  
Cache-Control: no-cache  
Server: Mongrel 0.3.13.4  
Content-Type: text/html  
Content-Length: 27

HTTP Basic: Access denied.

* * *

Essentially the mongrel server seems to send everything it’s supposed  
to except it sends a 0 http status code instead of a 401. Is there  
perhaps a known issue with mongrel that would cause it to send a 0  
http status code?

Thanks,  
Jeff Davies

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![g1g1g1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@g1g1g1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/g1g1g1)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2008, 6:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/http-authentication/150628/2 "2008-10-10T18:53:52Z")

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I’m not sure if there is a bug or not BUT looking at your header  
information you have Mongrel 0.3.13.4 !? Is that the actual mongrel  
you are using? This version is 2+ years old… If that is the Mongrel  
you should upgrade to the latest and test with that first. (1.1.5)

I would also recommend to run mongrel in you development environment  
just to see these issues before you push to your production env.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![g1g1g1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@g1g1g1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/g1g1g1)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 5:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/http-authentication/150628/3 "2008-10-14T17:02:56Z")

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the solutions in the end for me was to edit the http\_authentication  
plugin as below:

in /vendor/plugins/http\_authentication/lib/http\_authentication/  
basic.rb line 49

controller.render :text =\> “HTTP Basic: Access denied.\n”, :status  
=\> :unauthorized  
becomes  
controller.render :text =\> “HTTP Basic: Access denied.\n”, :status =\>  
401#:unauthorized

I’m still not completely satisfied with my solution and I’ll try and  
get some feedback from the author but incase you’re googling and stuck  
for answers maybe that will help…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![g1g1g1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@g1g1g1](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/g1g1g1)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 10:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/http-authentication/150628/4 "2008-10-14T10:53:29Z")

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ho hum…

the latest (1.1.5) mongrel displays the 401 on my (local) dev server.  
But the same version of mongrel does not display it on the live  
server. Must be something to do with the set up on the live server.  
I’ll have to do some more digging…

Thanks for the help though… it probably is about time we did some  
updating of rails / mongrel / ruby / etc