django-axes/docs/configuration.rst

.. _configuration:

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

Add ``axes`` to your ``INSTALLED_APPS``::

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

Add ``axes.backends.AxesModelBackend`` to the top of ``AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS``::

    AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS = [
        'axes.backends.AxesModelBackend',
        # ...
        'django.contrib.auth.backends.ModelBackend',
        # ...
    ]

Run ``python manage.py migrate`` to sync the database.

Known configuration problems
----------------------------

Axes has a few configuration issues with external packages and specific cache backends
due to their internal implementations.

Cache problems
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you are running Axes on a deployment with in-memory Django cache,
the ``axes_reset`` functionality might not work predictably.

Axes caches access attempts application-wide, and the in-memory cache
only caches access attempts per Django process, so for example
resets made in one web server process or the command line with ``axes_reset``
might not remove lock-outs that are in the sepate process' in-memory cache
such as the web server process serving your login or admin page.

To circumvent this problem please use somethings else than
``django.core.cache.backends.locmem.LocMemCache`` as your
cache backend in Django cache ``BACKEND`` setting.

If it is not an option to change the default cache you can add a cache
specifically for use with Axes. This is a two step process. First you need to
add an extra cache to ``CACHES`` with a name of your choice::

    CACHES = {
        'default': {
            'BACKEND': 'django.core.cache.backends.locmem.LocMemCache',
        },
        'axes_cache': {
            'BACKEND': 'django.core.cache.backends.dummy.DummyCache',
        }
    }

The next step is to tell axes to use this cache through adding ``AXES_CACHE``
to your ``settings.py`` file::

    AXES_CACHE = 'axes_cache'

There are no known problems in other cache backends such as
``DummyCache``, ``FileBasedCache``, or ``MemcachedCache`` backends.

Authentication backend problems
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you get ``AxesModelBackend.RequestParameterRequired`` exceptions,
make sure any auth libraries and middleware you use pass the request object to authenticate.
Notably in older versions of Django Rest Framework (DRF) (before 3.7.0), ``BasicAuthentication`` does not pass request.
`Here is an example workaround for DRF <https://gist.github.com/markddavidoff/7e442b1ea2a2e68d390e76731c35afe7>`_.

Reverse proxy configuration
---------------------------

Django Axes makes use of ``django-ipware`` package to detect the IP address of the client
and uses some conservative configuration parameters by default for security.

If you are using reverse proxies, you will need to configure one or more of the
following settings to suit your set up to correctly resolve client IP addresses:

* ``AXES_PROXY_COUNT``: The number of reverse proxies in front of Django as an integer. Default: ``None``
* ``AXES_META_PRECEDENCE_ORDER``: The names of ``request.META`` attributes as a tuple of strings
  to check to get the client IP address. Check the Django documentation for header naming conventions.
  Default: ``IPWARE_META_PRECEDENCE_ORDER`` setting if set, else ``('REMOTE_ADDR', )``

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_CACHE``: The name of the cache for axes to use.
  Default: ``'default'``
* ``AXES_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_USERNAME_CALLABLE``: A callable function that takes a request object
  and returns the username. If empty, axes just fetches it from the POST body
  based on ``AXES_USERNAME_FORM_FIELD``. Default: ``None``
* ``AXES_PASSWORD_FORM_FIELD``: the name of the form field that contains your
  users password. Default: ``password``
* ``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: []
  Default: ``False``
* ``AXES_DISABLE_ACCESS_LOG``: If ``True``, disable all access logging, so the admin interface will be empty. Default: ``False``
* ``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. Default: ``False``