session cookie decrypter for Rails 4.2+

with_active_support.rb

require 'cgi'
require 'json'
require 'active_support'

def verify_and_decrypt_session_cookie(cookie, secret_key_base)
  cookie = CGI::unescape(cookie)
  salt         = 'encrypted cookie'
  signed_salt  = 'signed encrypted cookie'
  key_generator = ActiveSupport::KeyGenerator.new(secret_key_base, iterations: 1000)
  secret = key_generator.generate_key(salt)[0, ActiveSupport::MessageEncryptor.key_len]
  sign_secret = key_generator.generate_key(signed_salt)
  encryptor = ActiveSupport::MessageEncryptor.new(secret, sign_secret, serializer: JSON)
  encryptor.decrypt_and_verify(cookie)
end

without_active_support.rb

require 'openssl'
require 'base64'
require 'cgi'
require 'json'

def verify_and_decrypt_session_cookie cookie, secret_key_base
  cookie = CGI.unescape(cookie)

  #################
  # generate keys #
  #################
  encrypted_cookie_salt = 'encrypted cookie' # default: Rails.application.config.action_dispatch.encrypted_cookie_salt
  encrypted_signed_cookie_salt = 'signed encrypted cookie' # default: Rails.application.config.action_dispatch.encrypted_signed_cookie_salt
  iterations = 1000
  key_size = 64
  secret = OpenSSL::PKCS5.pbkdf2_hmac_sha1(secret_key_base, encrypted_cookie_salt, iterations, key_size)[0, OpenSSL::Cipher.new('aes-256-cbc').key_len]
  sign_secret = OpenSSL::PKCS5.pbkdf2_hmac_sha1(secret_key_base, encrypted_signed_cookie_salt, iterations, key_size)

  ##########
  # Verify #
  ##########
  data, digest = cookie.split('--')
  raise 'invalid message' unless digest == OpenSSL::HMAC.hexdigest(OpenSSL::Digest::SHA1.new, sign_secret, data)
  # you better use secure compare instead of `==` to prevent time based attact,
  # ref: ActiveSupport::SecurityUtils.secure_compare

  ###########
  # Decrypt #
  ###########
  encrypted_message = Base64.strict_decode64(data)
  encrypted_data, iv = encrypted_message.split('--').map{|v| Base64.strict_decode64(v) }
  cipher = OpenSSL::Cipher::Cipher.new('aes-256-cbc')
  cipher.decrypt
  cipher.key = secret
  cipher.iv  = iv
  decrypted_data = cipher.update(encrypted_data)
  decrypted_data << cipher.final

  JSON.load(decrypted_data)
end

Lovely, thank you! 🎉

In line 10 of the first one, you use ActiveSupport::MessageEncryptor.key_len which does not exist in Rails 5.0.0. I substituted OpenSSL::Cipher.new('aes-256-cbc').key_len, which was 32 on my machine.

@erose You are right! I didn't realize that ActiveSupport::MessageEncryptor.key_len got added in 5.0.1!

http://api.rubyonrails.org/v5.0.0/classes/ActiveSupport/MessageEncryptor.html vs
http://api.rubyonrails.org/v5.0.1/classes/ActiveSupport/MessageEncryptor.html#method-c-key_len

For Rails 5.1 I needed to remove serializer: JSON https://gist.github.com/tadast/769541b7fb82b31466dc620af40fe362

How did you guys handle development where Rails.application.secrets.secret_key_base is nil?

For what it's worth, this didn't work for me under rails 5.2.4, but here's what worked for me: https://gist.github.com/nevans/558b69f227c243f63552a6f91915424f

For Rails 7 https://makandracards.com/makandra/441195-rails-manually-decrypting-session-cookie