the restful authentication plugin does appear to be broken with rails (2.3.4) [name error and yes I know about the bug that is on hold]. Is their a better plugin/gem?

I think most of developers will agree right now, authlogic is the best authentication plugin. For authorization, I do personnaly really like acl9 which perfectly integrates with authlogic.

A fairly new entry in this area is devise which is based on warden, a rack-based authentication solution. You can see the popularity of the various plugins over at ruby toolbox.