Build Robust Security into a Rails-Based Wiki System

ne of the core advantages of wiki systems is the ability to edit web pages stored on a server through a web browser. However, this function also allows administrators to look at the contents of your wiki pages, particularly if your wiki uses a shared server. If you store confidential information on that server, this is an especially undesirable compromise. A simple solution to this dilemma is to store the web pages in an encrypted form and use authentication to access them in a readable form.

Building on the wiki file-management system created in a previous DevX article ("Build a Wiki System with Rails"), this article demonstrates how to add authentication and encryption security features to the system (see Sidebar 1 for an overview of these security concepts). This simple system, called RailsWiki, offers basic web page management features such as view, edit, print, and so on (Figure 1 presents its basic design).

Figure 1. RailsWiki Design

The company I founded recently has been using this very application for a couple of months now to manage a dozen or so encrypted wiki pages. So this system has practical, real world applications.