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GermĂĄn Alberto Gimenez Silva
GermĂĄn Alberto Gimenez Silva

Posted on • Originally published at rubystacknews.com on

🔐 Securing Your Ruby Apps with bundler-audit

#programming #ruby #rails #cybersecurity

June 10, 2025

In today’s world of frequent security breaches, keeping your Ruby application’s dependencies secure is non-negotiable. That’s where bundler-audit steps in—a powerful command-line tool that scans your Gemfile.lock for known vulnerabilities and insecure gem sources.

🛠 What is bundler-audit?

bundler-audit checks your project for:

  • Vulnerable versions of gems (by comparing with the ruby-advisory-db)
  • Insecure gem sources (like http:// or git://)
  • Missing advisories updates

It’s lightweight, fast, and fits perfectly in local or CI-based security workflows.

🔐 Is your Ruby app secure and stable?

Outdated gems and vulnerable dependencies can silently put your users—and your business—at risk.

With tools like bundler-audit , you can detect known vulnerabilities and insecure gem sources before they become real problems.

Whether you need a quick audit or full security hardening, I can help you stabilize and secure your stack.

🚀

🚀 Getting Started

1. Install the gem: 


gem install bundler-audit
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2. Update the advisory database: 


bundle-audit update
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3. Scan your application: 


bundle-audit check
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🧪 Example Output

Let’s say your project includes a vulnerable version of rack. The output may look like:


Name: rack
Version: 2.0.6
Advisory: CVE-2018-16471
Criticality: Unknown
URL: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-16471
Title: Possible XSS Vulnerability in Rack
Solution: upgrade to >= 2.0.7

Insecure Source: http://rubygems.org/
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✅ Ignoring Reviewed Issues

If you’ve reviewed and accepted the risk for a specific advisory, you can ignore it:


bundle-audit check --ignore CVE-2018-16471
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Ignored advisories are stored in ~/.bundler/audit.yml.

🔄 Automate with Rake

Add this to your Rakefile:


require 'bundler/audit/task'

Bundler::Audit::Task.new
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Then run:


rake bundler:audit
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💡 Pro Tips

  • Run bundle-audit in CI pipelines to block insecure builds.
  • Update regularly with bundle-audit update to stay on top of new vulnerabilities.

🧭 Final Thoughts

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Security should be proactive, not reactive. bundler-audit makes it easy to spot vulnerabilities before they affect production. It’s a must-have tool for any serious Ruby developer.

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