2. Installation¶
Axes is easy to install from the PyPI package:
$ pip install django-axes
After installing the package, the project settings need to be configured.
1. Add axes
to your INSTALLED_APPS
:
INSTALLED_APPS = [
'django.contrib.admin',
'django.contrib.auth',
'django.contrib.contenttypes',
'django.contrib.sessions',
'django.contrib.messages',
'django.contrib.staticfiles',
# Axes app can be in any position in the INSTALLED_APPS list.
'axes',
]
2. Add axes.backends.AxesBackend
to the top of AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS
:
AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS = [
# AxesBackend should be the first backend in the AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS list.
'axes.backends.AxesBackend',
# Django ModelBackend is the default authentication backend.
'django.contrib.auth.backends.ModelBackend',
]
3. Add axes.middleware.AxesMiddleware
to your list of MIDDLEWARE
:
MIDDLEWARE = [
# The following is the list of default middleware in new Django projects.
'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
# AxesMiddleware should be the last middleware in the MIDDLEWARE list.
# It only formats user lockout messages and renders Axes lockout responses
# on failed user authentication attempts from login views.
# If you do not want Axes to override the authentication response
# you can skip installing the middleware and use your own views.
'axes.middleware.AxesMiddleware',
]
4. Run python manage.py check
to check the configuration.
5. Run python manage.py migrate
to sync the database.
Axes is now functional with the default settings and is saving user attempts into your database and locking users out if they exceed the maximum attempts.
You should use the python manage.py check
command to verify the correct configuration in
development, staging, and production environments. It is probably best to use this step as part
of your regular CI workflows to verify that your project is not misconfigured.
Axes uses checks to verify your Django settings configuration for security and functionality. Many people have different configurations for their development and production environments, and running the application with misconfigured settings can prevent security features from working.
Disabling Axes system checks¶
If you are implementing custom authentication, request middleware, or signal handlers the Axes checks system might false positives in the Django checks framework.
You can silence the unnecessary warnings by using the following Django settings:
SILENCED_SYSTEM_CHECKS = ['axes.W003']
Axes has the following warnings codes built in:
axes.W001
for invalidCACHES
configuration.axes.W002
for invalidMIDDLEWARE
configuration.axes.W003
for invalidAUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS
configuration.axes.W004
for deprecated use ofAXES_*
setting flags.
Note
Only disable the Axes system checks and warnings if you know what you are doing. The default checks are implemented to verify and improve your project’s security and should only produce necessary warnings due to misconfigured settings.
Disabling Axes components in tests¶
If you get errors when running tests, try setting the
AXES_ENABLED
flag to False
in your test settings:
AXES_ENABLED = False
This disables the Axes middleware, authentication backend and signal receivers, which might fix errors with incompatible test configurations.