django-axes/docs/configuration.rst

.. _configuration:

Configuration
=============

Just add `axes` to your ``INSTALLED_APPS``::

    INSTALLED_APPS = (
        'django.contrib.admin',
        'django.contrib.auth',
        'django.contrib.contenttypes',
        'django.contrib.sessions',
        'django.contrib.sites',
        ...
        'axes',
        ...
    )

Remember to run ``python manage.py migrate`` to sync the database.


Customizing Axes
----------------

You have a couple options available to you to customize ``django-axes`` a bit.
These should be defined in your ``settings.py`` file.

* ``AXES_LOGIN_FAILURE_LIMIT``: The number of login attempts allowed before a
  record is created for the failed logins.  Default: ``3``
* ``AXES_LOCK_OUT_AT_FAILURE``: After the number of allowed login attempts
  are exceeded, should we lock out this IP (and optional user agent)?
  Default: ``True``
* ``AXES_USE_USER_AGENT``: If ``True``, lock out / log based on an IP address
  AND a user agent.  This means requests from different user agents but from
  the same IP are treated differently.  Default: ``False``
* ``AXES_COOLOFF_TIME``: If set, defines a period of inactivity after which
  old failed login attempts will be forgotten. Can be set to a python
  timedelta object or an integer. If an integer, will be interpreted as a
  number of hours.  Default: ``None``
* ``AXES_LOGGER``: If set, specifies a logging mechanism for axes to use.
  Default: ``'axes.watch_login'``
* ``AXES_LOCKOUT_TEMPLATE``: If set, specifies a template to render when a
  user is locked out. Template receives cooloff_time and failure_limit as
  context variables. Default: ``None``
* ``AXES_LOCKOUT_URL``: If set, specifies a URL to redirect to on lockout. If
  both AXES_LOCKOUT_TEMPLATE and AXES_LOCKOUT_URL are set, the template will
  be used. Default: ``None``
* ``AXES_VERBOSE``: If ``True``, you'll see slightly more logging for Axes.
  Default: ``True``
* ``AXES_USERNAME_FORM_FIELD``: the name of the form field that contains your
  users usernames. Default: ``username``
* ``AXES_LOCK_OUT_BY_COMBINATION_USER_AND_IP``: If ``True`` prevents the login
  from IP under a particular user if the attempt limit has been exceeded,
  otherwise lock out based on IP.
  Default: ``False``
* ``AXES_ONLY_USER_FAILURES`` : If ``True`` only locks based on user id and never locks by IP
  if attempts limit exceed, otherwise utilize the existing IP and user locking logic
  Default: ``False``
* ``AXES_NEVER_LOCKOUT_WHITELIST``: If ``True``, users can always login from whitelisted IP addresses.
  Default: ``False``
* ``AXES_IP_WHITELIST``: A list of IP's to be whitelisted. For example: AXES_IP_WHITELIST=['0.0.0.0']. Default: []
* ``AXES_BEHIND_REVERSE_PROXY``: If ``True``, it will look for the IP address from the header defined at ``AXES_REVERSE_PROXY_HEADER``. Please make sure if you enable this setting to configure your proxy to set the correct value for the header, otherwise you could be attacked by setting this header directly in every request.
  Default: ``False``
* ``AXES_REVERSE_PROXY_HEADER``: If ``AXES_BEHIND_REVERSE_PROXY`` is ``True``, it will look for the IP address from this header.
  Default: ``HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR``
* ``AXES_NUM_PROXIES``: If ``AXES_BEHIND_REVERSE_PROXY`` is ``True``, use this value to calculate the end user IP address from the end of the list of IPs in header ``AXES_REVERSE_PROXY_HEADER``. For example, if you have one (1) proxy configured and set ``AXES_NUM_PROXIES = 1`` we, choose IP ``[ip.strip() for ip in request.META.get(AXES_REVERSE_PROXY_HEADER).split(',')][-1]``. For ``X-Forwarded-For: a, b, client-ip`` this would pick the value ``client-ip``. This configuration is used to prevent ``X-Forwarded-For`` (XFF) header spoofing or injection by the end user, because the ``X-Forwarded-For`` headers can be added to the request by the end user, circumventing the IP locking mechanisms in Axes. If you are running with Apache, nginx, or Elastic Load Balancer, you should set this to ``1``. It is by default configured to ``0`` for backwards compatibility. Default: ``0``
* ``AXES_DISABLE_ACCESS_LOG``: If ``True``, disable all access logging, so the admin interface will be empty.
* ``AXES_DISABLE_SUCCESS_ACCESS_LOG``: If ``True``, successful logins will not be logged, so the access log shown in the admin interface will only list unsuccessful login attempts.