django-sesame 3.2.3
Frictionless authentication with "Magic Links" for your Django project.
License: BSD-3-Clause
Requires Python: >=3.9
Keywords: authentication, token-based-authentication

.. image:: logo/horizontal.svg
   :width: 400px
   :alt: django-sesame

django-sesame provides frictionless authentication with "Magic Links" for
your Django project.

It generates URLs containing authentication tokens such as:
https://example.com/?sesame=zxST9d0XT9xgfYLvoa9e2myN

Then it authenticates users based on tokens found in URLs.

More broadly, it supports a wide range of `use cases`_ for
stateless, token-based authentication.

Please review `(in)security`_ considerations before using django-sesame.

----

`Documentation is available on ReadTheDocs.`__

----

__ https://django-sesame.readthedocs.io/en/stable/

Requirements
------------

django-sesame is tested with:

- Django 4.2 (LTS), 5.0, 5.1, and 5.2 (LTS);
- Python ≥ 3.9.

It requires ``django.contrib.auth``.

Getting started
---------------

Install django-sesame:

.. code-block:: console

    $ pip install django-sesame

Open your project settings and add ``"sesame.backends.ModelBackend"`` to the
``AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS`` setting. Extending the default value, this
looks like:

.. code-block:: python

    AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS = [
        "django.contrib.auth.backends.ModelBackend",
        "sesame.backends.ModelBackend",
    ]

Now, your project can authenticate users based on django-sesame tokens.

Quick example
-------------

Configure ``LoginView`` in your URLconf:

.. code-block:: python

    from django.urls import path
    from sesame.views import LoginView

    urlpatterns = [
        ...,
        path("sesame/login/", LoginView.as_view(), name="sesame-login"),
        ...,
    ]

Load a user from the database:

.. code-block:: pycon

    >>> from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model
    >>> User = get_user_model()
    >>> user = User.objects.first()

Generate a login URL for this user:

.. code-block:: pycon

    >>> from sesame.utils import get_query_string
    >>> LOGIN_URL = "https://127.0.0.1:8000/sesame/login/"
    >>> LOGIN_URL + get_query_string(user)
    'https://127.0.0.1:8000/sesame/login/?sesame=zxST9d0XT9xgfYLvoa9e2myN'

(Your token will be different from this example.)

Make sure that you're logged out. Open the login URL. You are logged in!

Use cases
---------

Known use cases for django-sesame include:

1. Login by email, an attractive option on mobile where typing passwords
   is uncomfortable. This technique is prominently deployed by Slack.

   If you're doing this, you should define a small ``SESAME_MAX_AGE``, perhaps
   10 minutes.

2. Authenticated links. For example, you can generate a report offline
   and, when it's ready, email a link to access it. Authenticated links work
   even if the user isn't logged in on the device where they're opening it.

   Likewise, you should configure an appropriate ``SESAME_MAX_AGE``,
   probably a few days.

   Since emails may be forwarded, authenticated links shouldn't log the user
   in. They should only allow access to specific views.

3. Sharing links, which are a variant of authenticated links. When a user shares
   content with a guest, you may create a phantom account for the guest and
   generate an authenticated link tied to that account or you may reuse the
   user's account.

   Email forwarding is also likely in this context. Make sure that sharing links
   don't log the user in.

4. Authentication of WebSocket connections. The web application gets a token
   generated by the Django server and sends it over the WebSocket connection.
   The WebSocket server authenticate the connection with the token.

   Here's an `example with the websockets library`__.

   __ https://websockets.readthedocs.io/en/stable/howto/django.html

5. Non-critical private websites, for example for a family or club site,
   where users don't expect to manage a personal account with a password.
   Authorized users can bookmark personalized authenticated URLs.

   Here you can rely on the default settings because that's the original —
   admittedly, niche — use case for which django-sesame was built.

(In)security
------------

The major security weakness in django-sesame is a direct consequence of the
feature it implements: **whoever obtains an authentication token is able to
authenticate to your website.**

URLs end up in countless insecure places: emails, referer headers, proxy logs,
browser history, etc. You can't avoid that. At best you can mitigate it by
creating short-lived or single-use tokens.

Otherwise, a reasonable attempt was made to provide a secure solution. Tokens
are secured with modern cryptography. There are configurable options for token
invalidation.