Authenticate in Rails with super-simple HTTP Auth.

admin.yml

users:
- name: foz
  password: secret1
- name: joe
  password: secret2

base_controller.rb

class Admin::BaseController < ApplicationController
  before_filter :authenticate

  # ...
  
  private
  
    def authenticate
      return true if Rails.env.development?
      authenticate_or_request_with_http_basic do |id, password| 
        ADMIN_USERS["users"].each do |user|
           # for better security, use SHA1 or something for password!
          return true if (id == user["name"] and password == user["password"])
        end
        return false
      end
    end
end

environment.rb

# ...

# load admin users
ADMIN_USERS = YAML::load_file('config/admin.yml')