Adding JWT Authentication to Python and Django REST Framework Using Auth0

In this tutorial we'll learn how to add JWT authentication to an API built with Django REST framework. Basically we'll use the djangorestframework-jwt package for adding JWT authentication as you would normally do except that we'll change JWT_AUTH to use Auth0.

This tutorial assumes you already have a development machine with Python 3 and pip installed and will cover the following points:

• We'll see how to create a virtual environment, install Django and the other dependencies (Django REST framework and djangorestframework-jwt)
• We'll see how to create an Auth0 API
• We'll see how to integrate Auth0 JWT authentication with Django
• We'll briefdly talk about using Auth0 Rules for detecting signup
• We'll see how to add some Django views for testing JWT
• We'll see how to use Postman for testing JWT authentication with Auth0

Creating the Django Project

So head over to your terminal then create a new virtual environment and activate it using the venv module in your current working directory:

python3 -m venv ./myenv
source myenv/bin/activate

Next install Django using pip:

pip install django

Now you'll need to create a new Django project using:

django-admin startproject auth0-django-example

Next create a new application in your project

cd auth0-django-example
python manage.py startapp customers

Add customers to the installed apps in your project' settings.py file:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'customers'
]

Next migrate your database then start the development server

python manage.py migrate
python manage.py runserver

You can visit your app at http://localhost:8000

Create an Auth0 API

Head over to your Auth0 dashboard then create an API

Go to the API section then click on the CREATE API button which will show a form where you need to enter your API details

Integrating Auth0 with Django

Now head back to your terminal then install Django REST framework and djangorestframework-jwt package for handling JWT authentication using pip

pip install djangorestframework
pip install djangorestframework-jwt
pip install cryptography
pip install python-jose

Add rest_framework and rest_framework_jwt to the installed apps in settings.py:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'rest_framework',
    'rest_framework_jwt'
]

Next you'll need to setup djangorestframework-jwt to use Auth0 central server for JWT authentication by follwing a few steps.

First add JSONWebTokenAuthentication to DEFAULT_AUTHENTICATION_CLASSES:

REST_FRAMEWORK = {
    'DEFAULT_PERMISSION_CLASSES': (
        'rest_framework.permissions.IsAuthenticated',
    ),
    'DEFAULT_AUTHENTICATION_CLASSES': (
       'rest_framework_jwt.authentication.JSONWebTokenAuthentication',
    ),
}

Secondly import the follwing libs in your settings.py file:

import json
from six.moves.urllib import request
from cryptography.x509 import load_pem_x509_certificate
from cryptography.hazmat.backends import default_backend

Finally add this code to settings.py:

AUTH0_DOMAIN = '<YOUR_AUTH0_DOMAIN>'
API_IDENTIFIER = '<YOUR_API_IDENTIFIER>'
PUBLIC_KEY = None
JWT_ISSUER = None
if AUTH0_DOMAIN:
    jsonurl = request.urlopen('https://' + AUTH0_DOMAIN + '/.well-known/jwks.json')
    jwks = json.loads(jsonurl.read().decode('utf-8'))
    cert = '-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----\n' + jwks['keys'][0]['x5c'][0] + '\n-----END CERTIFICATE-----'
    certificate = load_pem_x509_certificate(cert.encode('utf-8'), default_backend())
    PUBLIC_KEY = certificate.public_key()
    JWT_ISSUER = 'https://' + AUTH0_DOMAIN + '/'

def jwt_get_username_from_payload_handler(payload):
    return 'someusername'

JWT_AUTH = {
    'JWT_PAYLOAD_GET_USERNAME_HANDLER': jwt_get_username_from_payload_handler,
    'JWT_PUBLIC_KEY': PUBLIC_KEY,
    'JWT_ALGORITHM': 'RS256',
    'JWT_AUDIENCE': API_IDENTIFIER,
    'JWT_ISSUER': JWT_ISSUER,
    'JWT_AUTH_HEADER_PREFIX': 'Bearer',
}

But of course you need to replace AUTH0_DOMAIN with your own Auth0 domain and API_IDENTIFIER with your own API identifier.

Please note that you need to create a user in your Django database with a someusername username for the JWT authentication to work.

The custom jwt_get_username_from_payload_handler that we are using is very simple, it maps your Auth0 users to one user in your Django database.

Because Auth0 already takes care of managing users and profiles for you so most of the time you don't have to store users locally i.e in your Django database unless you need to have users information in your database for some reason.

In this case you'll need to create a more advanced implementation. You can use this custom method instead:

def jwt_get_username_from_payload_handler(payload):
    return payload.get('sub').replace('|', '.')

But that's not the end of story: You need to create a Django user when a user successfully signs up using Auth0.

Using Auth0 Rules for Detecting Signup

For this task you need to use Auth0 Rules

Rules are functions written in JavaScript that are executed in Auth0 as part of the transaction every time a user authenticates to your application. They are executed after the authentication and before the authorization.

Rules allow you to easily customize and extend Auth0's capabilities. They can be chained together for modular coding and can be turned on and off individually. Source

You can also see this example of a signup rule

Adding Django Views

Now let's add the code to test the Auth0 JWT authentication:

In customers/views.py add two view functions

from rest_framework.decorators import api_view
from django.http import HttpResponse

def public(request):
    return HttpResponse("You don't need to be authenticated to see this")

@api_view(['GET'])
def private(request):
    return HttpResponse("You should not see this message if not authenticated!");

In urls.py add:

from django.conf.urls import url
from . import views
urlpatterns = [
    url(r'^api/public/', views.public),
    url(r'^api/private/', views.private)
]

Testing JWT Authentication with Postman

Go to your API dashboard then to the Test tab then get a token you can use to test authentication

Next navigate with your web browser to http://localhost:8000/api/private/. You should get Authentication credentials were not provided.

Now let's use Postman for testing our endpoint: Open Postman then enter the URL for the endpoint then select Authorization tab.

For the TYPE select Bearer Token and in the right area enter the access token you get from Auth0 for testing.

Finally press the Send button, you should get: You should not see this message if not authenticated! as in the screenshot

Conclusion

In this tutorial we have created a simple Django application that uses Django REST framework and Auth0 for adding JWT authentication.