Need

Prevention of unauthorized account lockouts and ensuring continuous user access

Context

Description

class SessionsController < ApplicationController
  def create
    user = User.find_by(email: params[:email])
    if user && user.authenticate(params[:password])
      session[:user_id] = user.id
      redirect_to root_url, notice: "Logged in!"
    else
      render "new"...

The above code is a simple Ruby on Rails controller for managing user sessions. In the `create` action, it finds the user by the email provided in the form parameters and checks if the user exists and the password is correct. If the authentication is successful, it sets the user_id in the session and redirects the user to the root URL with a success message. If the authentication fails, it sets a flash message and re-renders the login form. However, this code is vulnerable to account lockout attacks. An attacker could repeatedly submit the login form with a valid email but incorrect password, causing the account to be locked out and preventing the legitimate user from logging in. This is because there is no mechanism in place to limit the number of failed login attempts. This vulnerability can cause a denial of service (DoS) if an attacker decides to lock out multiple or all accounts in the system.

class SessionsController < ApplicationController
  MAX_LOGIN_ATTEMPTS = 5

  def create
    user = User.find_by(email: params[:email])

    if user && user.authenticate(params[:password])
      session[:user_id] = user.id...

The updated code introduces a mechanism to limit the number of login attempts and lock the user account after a certain number of failed attempts. The `MAX_LOGIN_ATTEMPTS` constant is used to define the maximum number of failed login attempts allowed before the account is locked. In the `create` method, if the user authentication fails, the `failed_attempts` counter for the user is incremented. The `check_failed_attempts` method is then called to check if the user has exceeded the maximum number of allowed failed login attempts. If the maximum limit is reached, an alert message is displayed to the user indicating that their account has been locked and they need to contact support to unlock it. If the user authentication is successful, the `reset_failed_attempts` method is called to reset the `failed_attempts` counter for the user back to 0. This approach helps to mitigate the risk of account lockout vulnerability by limiting the number of failed login attempts and locking the account when the limit is exceeded.

References