Disabling Logging of (sensitive) Arguments in Active Job in Ruby [A How-To Guide]

by PrathameshMay 9th, 2020

Too Long; Didn't Read

Active Job logs the job arguments when the job is enqueued or run. If you are enqueuing such parameters to Active Job then they are logged at job level regardless. A feature is now present in Ruby on Rails master to fix this issue. The feature is not yet released but it will be part of the new version of Ruby on Ruby on the rails 6.1.1. I will update this post when it is released with the latest version of the Ruby on rails.

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If you are using Active Job for managing background jobs in Rails, you might have noticed that it logs the job arguments when the job is enqueued or run. Let's see an example of this.

class ImportDataJob < ApplicationJob
  queue_as :default

  def perform(*args)
    puts "Completed"
    # Do something later
  end
end

>> ImportDataJob.perform_later(password: "secret")

Enqueued ImportDataJob (Job ID: 4c44944b-0b1e-41ff-8679-c9757e09bdb2) to Async(default) 
with arguments: {:password=>"secret"}

>> Performing ImportDataJob (Job ID: 4c44944b-0b1e-41ff-8679-c9757e09bdb2) 
from Async(default) 
enqueued at 2020-04-29T13:23:37Z 
with arguments: {:password=>"secret"}
Completed

Performed ImportDataJob (Job ID: 4c44944b-0b1e-41ff-8679-c9757e09bdb2) 
from Async(default) in 9.39ms

As we can, see Active Job logs the arguments two times, once when the job is enqueued and once when the job starts performing.

We can filter request parameters on the controller level using

Rails.application.config.filter_parameters

configuration option so that sensitive parameters are not leaked in the logs. But if you are enqueuing such parameters to Active Job then the purpose of filtering them at controller level is defeated as they are logged at job level regardless.

A feature is now present in Rails master to fix this issue. We can disable logging for individual jobs by setting

log_arguments

configuration option.

class ImportDataJob < ApplicationJob
  queue_as :default
  self.log_arguments = false

  def perform(*args)   
    # Do something later
  end
end

>> ImportDataJob.perform_later password: "secret"
Enqueued ImportDataJob (Job ID: 1c388f29-b83c-477c-a046-50837b8941e8) 
to Async(default)

>> Performing ImportDataJob (Job ID: 1c388f29-b83c-477c-a046-50837b8941e8) 
from Async(default) enqueued at 2020-04-29T13:39:31Z

Completed
Performed ImportDataJob (Job ID: 1c388f29-b83c-477c-a046-50837b8941e8) 
from Async(default) in 5.81ms