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 invalid CACHES configuration.
  • axes.W002 for invalid MIDDLEWARE configuration.
  • axes.W003 for invalid AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS configuration.
  • axes.W004 for deprecated use of AXES_* 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.