The Bike Shed 485: HTTP Basic Auth
Dec 16, 2025
Joël and Aji dive into the nuances of HTTP Basic Auth, exploring its best use cases. They weigh its advantages and security risks, especially in comparison to standard HTTPS. Learn when it’s suitable for staging or prototypes, but always remember—never use it over unencrypted HTTP! The duo also discusses vulnerabilities like CSRF and the importance of using CSRF tokens for secure interactions. They touch on CORS limitations and provide practical takeaways for implementing effective security measures.
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Move Responsibilities Out Of Rails
- Aji and Joël compare moving responsibilities between Rails, infrastructure, and the browser.
- Joël suggests letting the browser handle simple auth with Basic Auth to avoid extra Rails complexity.
Basic Auth For Staging And Prototypes
- Joël and Aji describe using HTTP Basic Auth as a fast way to gate staging, demos, prototypes, and small APIs.
- They use it as a lightweight speed bump so teams can share pre-release sites without adding user accounts.
Always Use HTTPS With Basic Auth
- Always serve Basic Auth over HTTPS to avoid sending credentials in cleartext.
- Use it only as a simple barrier, not as a replacement for proper production authentication.