Ensure that associations have a symbol argument.

Fixes #7418.

3 files changed, 12 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/activerecord/CHANGELOG.md b/activerecord/CHANGELOG.md
index ee99e86157..23e38c55d2 100644
--- a/activerecord/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/activerecord/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 ## Rails 4.0.0 (unreleased) ##
 
+*   Ensure that associations take a symbol argument. *Steve Klabnik*
+
 *   Fix dirty attribute checks for `TimeZoneConversion` with nil and blank
     datetime attributes. Setting a nil datetime to a blank string should not
     result in a change being flagged. Fix #8310
diff --git a/activerecord/lib/active_record/associations/builder/association.rb b/activerecord/lib/active_record/associations/builder/association.rb
index 1df876bf62..5c37f42794 100644
--- a/activerecord/lib/active_record/associations/builder/association.rb
+++ b/activerecord/lib/active_record/associations/builder/association.rb
@@ -13,6 +13,8 @@ module ActiveRecord::Associations::Builder
     end
 
     def initialize(model, name, scope, options)
+      raise ArgumentError, "association names must be a Symbol" unless name.kind_of?(Symbol)
+
       @model   = model
       @name    = name
 
diff --git a/activerecord/test/cases/associations_test.rb b/activerecord/test/cases/associations_test.rb
index c0f1945cec..d7f25f760e 100644
--- a/activerecord/test/cases/associations_test.rb
+++ b/activerecord/test/cases/associations_test.rb
@@ -289,6 +289,14 @@ class OverridingAssociationsTest < ActiveRecord::TestCase
       DifferentPeopleList.reflect_on_association(:has_one)
     )
   end
+
+  def test_requires_symbol_argument
+    assert_raises ArgumentError do 
+      Class.new(Post) do
+        belongs_to "author"
+      end
+    end
+  end
 end
 
 class GeneratedMethodsTest < ActiveRecord::TestCase