500 Internal Server Error when generating JWT token using Knock gem

Question

I am trying to authenticate my API requests with JWT Web Tokens, using the Knock gem in my Ruby on Rails application.

I did what the readme stated and modified the routes.rb file.

After that, I tried using cURL to get a token to see if everything was working. I typed curl -XPOST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"auth": {"email": "[email protected]", "password": "password"}}' localhost:3000/auth/auth_token (Knock is mounted to "/auth" and the user exists).

However, I get a 500 internal server error and this stack trace:

`Processing by Knock::AuthTokenController#create as */*
  Parameters: {"auth"=>{"email"=>"[email protected]", "password"=>"[FILTERED]"}}
  User Load (0.2ms)  SELECT  "users".* FROM "users" WHERE "users"."email" = ? LIMIT 1  [["email", "[email protected]"]]
  CACHE (0.0ms)  SELECT  "users".* FROM "users" WHERE "users"."email" = ? LIMIT 1  [["email", "[email protected]"]]
Completed 500 Internal Server Error in 104ms (ActiveRecord: 0.5ms)`

`TypeError (no implicit conversion of nil into String):
  jwt (1.5.2) lib/jwt.rb:73:in 'digest'
  jwt (1.5.2) lib/jwt.rb:73:in 'sign_hmac'
  jwt (1.5.2) lib/jwt.rb:34:in 'sign'
  jwt (1.5.2) lib/jwt.rb:98:in 'encoded_signature'
  jwt (1.5.2) lib/jwt.rb:108:in 'encode'
  knock (1.4.1) app/model/knock/auth_token.rb:13:in 'initialize'
  knock (1.4.1) app/controllers/knock/auth_token_controller.rb:17:in 'new'
  knock (1.4.1) app/controllers/knock/auth_token_controller.rb:17:in 'auth_token'
  knock (1.4.1) app/controllers/knock/auth_token_controller.rb:8:in 'create'
actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_controller/metal/implicit_render.rb:4:in `send_action'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/abstract_controller/base.rb:198:in `process_action'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_controller/metal/rendering.rb:10:in `process_action'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/abstract_controller/callbacks.rb:20:in `block in process_action'
  activesupport (4.2.5) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:117:in `call'
  activesupport (4.2.5) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:117:in `call'
  activesupport (4.2.5) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:555:in `block (2 levels) in compile'
  activesupport (4.2.5) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:505:in `call'
  activesupport (4.2.5) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:505:in `call'
  activesupport (4.2.5) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:92:in `__run_callbacks__'
  activesupport (4.2.5) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:778:in `_run_process_action_callbacks'
  activesupport (4.2.5) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:81:in `run_callbacks'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/abstract_controller/callbacks.rb:19:in `process_action'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_controller/metal/rescue.rb:29:in `process_action'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_controller/metal/instrumentation.rb:32:in `block in process_action'
  activesupport (4.2.5) lib/active_support/notifications.rb:164:in `block in instrument'
  activesupport (4.2.5) lib/active_support/notifications/instrumenter.rb:20:in `instrument'
  activesupport (4.2.5) lib/active_support/notifications.rb:164:in `instrument'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_controller/metal/instrumentation.rb:30:in `process_action'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_controller/metal/params_wrapper.rb:250:in `process_action'
  activerecord (4.2.5) lib/active_record/railties/controller_runtime.rb:18:in `process_action'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/abstract_controller/base.rb:137:in `process'
  actionview (4.2.5) lib/action_view/rendering.rb:30:in `process'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_controller/metal.rb:196:in `dispatch'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_controller/metal/rack_delegation.rb:13:in `dispatch'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_controller/metal.rb:237:in `block in action'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:76:in `call'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:76:in `dispatch'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:45:in `serve'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_dispatch/journey/router.rb:43:in `block in serve'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_dispatch/journey/router.rb:30:in `each'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_dispatch/journey/router.rb:30:in `serve'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:817:in `call'
  railties (4.2.5) lib/rails/engine.rb:518:in `call'
  railties (4.2.5) lib/rails/railtie.rb:194:in `public_send'
  railties (4.2.5) lib/rails/railtie.rb:194:in `method_missing'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_dispatch/routing/mapper.rb:51:in `serve'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_dispatch/journey/router.rb:43:in `block in serve'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_dispatch/journey/router.rb:30:in `each'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_dispatch/journey/router.rb:30:in `serve'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_dispatch/routing/route_set.rb:817:in `call'
  rack (1.6.4) lib/rack/etag.rb:24:in `call'
  rack (1.6.4) lib/rack/conditionalget.rb:38:in `call'
  rack (1.6.4) lib/rack/head.rb:13:in `call'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/params_parser.rb:27:in `call'
  activerecord (4.2.5) lib/active_record/query_cache.rb:36:in `call'
  activerecord (4.2.5) lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:653:in `call'
  activerecord (4.2.5) lib/active_record/migration.rb:377:in `call'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/callbacks.rb:29:in `block in call'
  activesupport (4.2.5) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:88:in `__run_callbacks__'
  activesupport (4.2.5) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:778:in `_run_call_callbacks'
  activesupport (4.2.5) lib/active_support/callbacks.rb:81:in `run_callbacks'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/callbacks.rb:27:in `call'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/reloader.rb:73:in `call'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/remote_ip.rb:78:in `call'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/debug_exceptions.rb:17:in `call'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/show_exceptions.rb:30:in `call'
  railties (4.2.5) lib/rails/rack/logger.rb:38:in `call_app'
  railties (4.2.5) lib/rails/rack/logger.rb:20:in `block in call'
  activesupport (4.2.5) lib/active_support/tagged_logging.rb:68:in `block in tagged'
  activesupport (4.2.5) lib/active_support/tagged_logging.rb:26:in `tagged'
  activesupport (4.2.5) lib/active_support/tagged_logging.rb:68:in `tagged'
  railties (4.2.5) lib/rails/rack/logger.rb:20:in `call'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/request_id.rb:21:in `call'
  rack (1.6.4) lib/rack/runtime.rb:18:in `call'
  activesupport (4.2.5) lib/active_support/cache/strategy/local_cache_middleware.rb:28:in `call'
  rack (1.6.4) lib/rack/lock.rb:17:in `call'
  actionpack (4.2.5) lib/action_dispatch/middleware/static.rb:116:in `call'
  rack-cors (0.4.0) lib/rack/cors.rb:80:in `call'
  railties (4.2.5) lib/rails/engine.rb:518:in `call'
  railties (4.2.5) lib/rails/application.rb:165:in `call'
  rack (1.6.4) lib/rack/lock.rb:17:in `call'
  rack (1.6.4) lib/rack/content_length.rb:15:in `call'
  rack (1.6.4) lib/rack/handler/webrick.rb:88:in `service'
  /home/user/.rbenv/versions/2.2.3/lib/ruby/2.2.0/webrick/httpserver.rb:138:in `service'
  /home/user/.rbenv/versions/2.2.3/lib/ruby/2.2.0/webrick/httpserver.rb:94:in `run'
  /home/user/.rbenv/versions/2.2.3/lib/ruby/2.2.0/webrick/server.rb:294:in `block in start_thread'

I have no idea what's causing this. The weirder thing is that I am working with a friend and he is able to generate a token, even though we are on the same branch and the environment SHOULD be the same (apparently it isn't, but I don't know where we differ).

I have google around, but no-one seems to have the same problem (or maybe I am googling for the wrong thing).

I am using Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and sqlite for the database, if that is of any help.

Thanks in advance!

pteixeira pteixeira · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-15T20:13:33

I eventually managed to get it to work.

What I did was

Uninstall Ruby (removed any references to it system wide, cleaned packages, updated everything and did dist-upgrade
Reinstalled Ruby (I use rbenv, but it should be the same with whatever you want)
Since I was working in a new branch of the project, I deleted the project folder and cloned it again from git
Reinstalled bundle after correctly configuring Ruby (I followed the guide in rbenv's github page)
Ran bundle in my project, it got all the gems that I needed
Configured my secret for the rails server (rake secret and paste that in config/secret.yml)

After this it was working. My best guess is that either I missconfigured the server or I had a corrupt gem.

500 Internal Server Error when generating JWT token using Knock gem

1 Answers