Django Axes
===========
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``django-axes`` is a very simple way for you to keep track of failed login
attempts, both for the Django admin and for the rest of your site. The name is
sort of a geeky pun, since ``axes`` can be read interpreted as:
* "access", as in monitoring access attempts
* "axes", as in tools you can use hack (generally on wood). In this case,
however, the "hacking" part of it can be taken a bit further: ``django-axes``
is intended to help you *stop* people from hacking (popular media
definition) your website. Hilarious, right? That's what I thought too!
Requirements
============
``django-axes`` requires a supported Django version. The application is
intended to work around the Django admin and the regular
``django.contrib.auth`` login-powered pages.
Look at https://www.djangoproject.com/download/ to check if your version
is supported.
Installation
============
You can install the latest stable package running this command::
$ pip install django-axes
Development
===========
You can contribute to this project forking it from github and sending pull requests.
Running tests
-------------
Clone the repository and install the django version you want. Then run::
$ ./runtests.py
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 to login
from IP under particular user if attempts limit exceed, otherwise lock out
based on IP.
Default: ``False``
* ``AXES_NEVER_LOCKOUT_WHITELIST``: If ``True``, users can always login from
whitelisted IP addresses.
Default: ``False``
* ``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``
Usage
=====
Using ``django-axes`` is extremely simple. All you need to do is periodically
check the Access Attempts section of the admin.
By default, django-axes will lock out repeated attempts from the same IP
address. You can allow this IP to attempt again by deleting the relevant
``AccessAttempt`` records in the admin.
You can also use the ``axes_reset`` management command using Django's
``manage.py``.
* ``manage.py axes_reset`` will reset all lockouts and access records.
* ``manage.py axes_reset ip`` will clear lockout/records for ip
In your code, you can use ``from axes.utils import reset``.
* ``reset()`` will reset all lockouts and access records.
* ``reset(ip=ip)`` will clear lockout/records for ip
* ``reset(username=username)`` will clear lockout/records for a username
Issues
======
Not being locked out after failed attempts
------------------------------------------
You may find that Axes is not capturing your failed login attempts. It may
be that you need to manually add watch_login to your login url.
For example, in your urls.py::
...
from my.custom.app import login
from axes.decorators import watch_login
...
urlpatterns = patterns('',
(r'^login/$', watch_login(login)),
...
Locked out without reason
-------------------------
It may happen that you have suddenly become locked out without a single failed
attempt. One possible reason is that you are using some custom login form and the
username field is named something different than "username", e.g. "email". This
leads to all users attempts being lumped together. To fix this add the following
to your settings:
AXES_USERNAME_FORM_FIELD = "email"
Using a captcha
===============
Using https://github.com/mbi/django-simple-captcha you do the following:
1. Change axes lockout url in ``settings.py``::
AXES_LOCKOUT_URL = '/locked'
2. Add the url in ``urls.py``::
url(r'^locked/$', locked_out, name='locked_out'),
3. Create a captcha form::
class AxesCaptchaForm(forms.Form):
captcha = CaptchaField()
4. Create a captcha view for the above url that resets on captcha success and redirects::
def locked_out(request):
if request.POST:
form = AxesCaptchaForm(request.POST)
if form.is_valid():
ip = get_ip_address_from_request(request)
reset(ip=ip)
return HttpResponseRedirect(reverse_lazy('signin'))
else:
form = AxesCaptchaForm()
return render_to_response('locked_out.html', dict(form=form), context_instance=RequestContext(request))
5. Add a captcha template::
{% csrf_token %}
{{ form.captcha.errors }}
{{ form.captcha }}
Done.