Django SAML2 Authentication
This plugin provides a simple way to integrate SAML2 Authentication into your Django-powered app. SAML SSO is a standard, so practically any SAML2 based SSO identity provider is supported.
This plugin supports both identity provider and service provider-initiated SSO:
- For IdP-initiated SSO, the user should sign in to their identity provider platform, e.g., Okta, and click on the application that authorizes and redirects the user to the service provider, that is your platform.
- For SP-initiated SSO, the user should first exist on your platform, either by signing in via the first method (IdP-initiated SSO) or any other custom solution. It can be configured to be redirected to the correct application on the identity provider platform.
For IdP-initiated SSO, the user will be created if it doesn't exist. Still, for SP-initiated SSO, the user should exist in your platform for the code to detect and redirect them to the correct application on the identity provider platform.
Project Information
- Original Author: Fang Li (@fangli)
- Maintainer: Mostafa Moradian (@mostafa)
-
Version support matrix: | Python | Django | django-saml2-auth | End of extended support
(Django) | | ---------------------- | ---------- | --------------------- | ---------------------------------------- | | 3.10.x, 3.11.x, 3.12.x | 4.2.x | >=3.4.0 | April 2026 | | 3.10.x, 3.11.x, 3.12.x | 5.0.x | >3.12.0 | April 2026 | -
Release logs are available here.
-
For contribution, read contributing guide.
CycloneDX SBOM
This project provides a CycloneDX Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) in JSON format. The SBOM is generated by the GitHub Actions workflow and is available as an artifact for each release. The SBOM is generated using the cyclonedx-python library.
Donate
Please give us a shiny and help spread the word.
Installation
You can install this plugin via pip
. Make sure you update pip
to be able to install from git:
pip install grafana-django-saml2-auth
or from source:
git clone https://github.com/grafana/django-saml2-auth
cd django-saml2-auth
python setup.py install
xmlsec
is also required by pysaml2
, so it must be installed:
// RPM-based distributions
# yum install xmlsec1
// DEB-based distributions
# apt-get install xmlsec1
// macOS
# brew install xmlsec1
Windows binaries are also available.
How to use?
-
Once you have the library installed or in your
requirements.txt
, import the views module in your rooturls.py
:python import django_saml2_auth.views
-
Override the default login page in the root
urls.py
file, by adding these lines BEFORE anyurlpatterns
:```python
These are the SAML2 related URLs. (required)
re_path(r'^sso/', include('django_saml2_auth.urls')),
The following line will replace the default user login with SAML2 (optional)
If you want to specific the after-login-redirect-URL, use parameter "?next=/the/path/you/want"
with this view.
re_path(r'^accounts/login/$', django_saml2_auth.views.signin),
The following line will replace the admin login with SAML2 (optional)
If you want to specific the after-login-redirect-URL, use parameter "?next=/the/path/you/want"
with this view.
re_path(r'^admin/login/$', django_saml2_auth.views.signin), ```
-
Add
'django_saml2_auth'
toINSTALLED_APPS
in your djangosettings.py
:python INSTALLED_APPS = [ '...', 'django_saml2_auth', ]
-
In
settings.py
, add the SAML2 related configuration:Please note, the only required setting is METADATA_AUTO_CONF_URL or the existence of a GET_METADATA_AUTO_CONF_URLS trigger function. The following block shows all required and optional configuration settings and their default values.
Click to see the entire settings block
```python SAML2_AUTH = { # Metadata is required, choose either remote url or local file path 'METADATA_AUTO_CONF_URL': '[The auto(dynamic) metadata configuration URL of SAML2]', 'METADATA_LOCAL_FILE_PATH': '[The metadata configuration file path]', 'KEY_FILE': '[The key file path]', 'CERT_FILE': '[The certificate file path]',
# If both `KEY_FILE` and `CERT_FILE` are provided, `ENCRYPTION_KEYPAIRS` will be added automatically. There is no need to provide it unless you wish to override the default value. 'ENCRYPTION_KEYPAIRS': [ { "key_file": '[The key file path]', "cert_file": '[The certificate file path]', } ], 'DEBUG': False, # Send debug information to a log file # Optional logging configuration. # By default, it won't log anything. # The following configuration is an example of how to configure the logger, # which can be used together with the DEBUG option above. Please note that # the logger configuration follows the Python's logging configuration schema: # https://docs.python.org/3/library/logging.config.html#logging-config-dictschema 'LOGGING': { 'version': 1, 'formatters': { 'simple': { 'format': '[%(asctime)s] [%(levelname)s] [%(name)s.%(funcName)s] %(message)s', }, }, 'handlers': { 'stdout': { 'class': 'logging.StreamHandler', 'stream': 'ext://sys.stdout', 'level': 'DEBUG', 'formatter': 'simple', }, }, 'loggers': { 'saml2': { 'level': 'DEBUG' }, }, 'root': { 'level': 'DEBUG', 'handlers': [ 'stdout', ], }, }, # Optional settings below 'DEFAULT_NEXT_URL': '/admin', # Custom target redirect URL after the user get logged in. Default to /admin if not set. This setting will be overwritten if you have parameter ?next= specificed in the login URL. 'CREATE_USER': True, # Create a new Django user when a new user logs in. Defaults to True. 'NEW_USER_PROFILE': { 'USER_GROUPS': [], # The default group name when a new user logs in 'ACTIVE_STATUS': True, # The default active status for new users 'STAFF_STATUS': False, # The staff status for new users 'SUPERUSER_STATUS': False, # The superuser status for new users }, 'ATTRIBUTES_MAP': { # Change Email/UserName/FirstName/LastName to corresponding SAML2 userprofile attributes. 'email': 'user.email', 'username': 'user.username', 'first_name': 'user.first_name', 'last_name': 'user.last_name', 'token': 'Token', # Mandatory, can be unrequired if TOKEN_REQUIRED is False 'groups': 'Groups', # Optional }, 'GROUPS_MAP': { # Optionally allow mapping SAML2 Groups to Django Groups 'SAML Group Name': 'Django Group Name', }, 'TRIGGER': { # Optional: needs to return a User Model instance or None 'GET_USER': 'path.to.your.get.user.hook.method', 'CREATE_USER': 'path.to.your.new.user.hook.method', 'BEFORE_LOGIN': 'path.to.your.login.hook.method', 'AFTER_LOGIN': 'path.to.your.after.login.hook.method', # Optional. This is executed right before METADATA_AUTO_CONF_URL. # For systems with many metadata files registered allows to narrow the search scope. 'GET_USER_ID_FROM_SAML_RESPONSE': 'path.to.your.get.user.from.saml.hook.method', # This can override the METADATA_AUTO_CONF_URL to enumerate all existing metadata autoconf URLs 'GET_METADATA_AUTO_CONF_URLS': 'path.to.your.get.metadata.conf.hook.method', }, 'ASSERTION_URL': 'https://mysite.com', # Custom URL to validate incoming SAML requests against 'ENTITY_ID': 'https://mysite.com/sso/acs/', # Populates the Issuer element in authn request 'NAME_ID_FORMAT': FormatString, # Sets the Format property of authn NameIDPolicy element, e.g. 'user.email' 'USE_JWT': True, # Set this to True if you are running a Single Page Application (SPA) with Django Rest Framework (DRF), and are using JWT authentication to authorize client users 'JWT_ALGORITHM': 'HS256', # JWT algorithm to sign the message with 'JWT_SECRET': 'your.jwt.secret', # JWT secret to sign the message with 'JWT_PRIVATE_KEY': '--- YOUR PRIVATE KEY ---', # Private key to sign the message with. The algorithm should be set to RSA256 or a more secure alternative. 'JWT_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSPHRASE': 'your.passphrase', # If your private key is encrypted, you might need to provide a passphrase for decryption 'JWT_PUBLIC_KEY': '--- YOUR PUBLIC KEY ---', # Public key to decode the signed JWT token 'JWT_EXP': 60, # JWT expiry time in seconds 'FRONTEND_URL': 'https://myfrontendclient.com', # Redirect URL for the client if you are using JWT auth with DRF. See explanation below 'LOGIN_CASE_SENSITIVE': True, # whether of not to get the user in case_sentive mode 'AUTHN_REQUESTS_SIGNED': True, # Require each authentication request to be signed 'LOGOUT_REQUESTS_SIGNED': True, # Require each logout request to be signed 'WANT_ASSERTIONS_SIGNED': True, # Require each assertion to be signed 'WANT_RESPONSE_SIGNED': True, # Require response to be signed 'ACCEPTED_TIME_DIFF': None, # Accepted time difference between your server and the Identity Provider 'ALLOWED_REDIRECT_HOSTS': ["https://myfrontendclient.com"], # Allowed hosts to redirect to using the ?next parameter 'TOKEN_REQUIRED': True, # Whether or not to require the token parameter in the SAML assertion
}
```
-
In your SAML2 SSO identity provider, set the Single-sign-on URL and Audience URI (SP Entity ID) to http://your-domain/sso/acs/
How to debug?
To debug what's happening between the SAMLP Identity Provider and your Django application, you can use SAML-tracer for Firefox or Chrome. Using this tool, you can see the SAML requests and responses that are being sent back and forth.
Also, you can enable the debug mode in the settings.py
file by setting the DEBUG
flag to True
and enabling the LOGGING
configuration. See above for configuration examples.
Note: Don't forget to disable the debug mode in production and also remove the logging configuration if you don't want to see internal logs of pysaml2 library.
Module Settings
Some of the following settings are related to how this module operates. The rest are passed as options to the pysaml2 library. For more information on the pysaml2 library, see the pysaml2 documentation, which contains examples of available settings. Also, note that all settings are not implemented in this module.
Click to see the module settings
| **Field name** | **Description** | **Data type(s)** | **Default value(s)** | **Example** | | ------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **METADATA\_AUTO\_CONF\_URL** | Auto SAML2 metadata configuration URL | `str` | `None` | `https://ORG.okta.com/app/APP-ID/sso/saml/metadata` | | **METADATA\_LOCAL\_FILE\_PATH** | SAML2 metadata configuration file path | `str` | `None` | `/path/to/the/metadata.xml` | | **KEY_FILE** | SAML2 private key file path. Required for AUTHN\_REQUESTS\_SIGNED | `str` | `None` | `/path/to/the/key.pem` | | **CERT_FILE** | SAML2 public certificate file path | `str` | `None` | `/path/to/the/cert.pem` | | **ENCRYPTION_KEYPAIRS** | Required for handling encrypted assertions. Will be automatically set if both `KEY_FILE` and `CERT_FILE` are set. | `list` | Not set. | `[ { 'key_file': '[The key file path]', 'cert_file': '[The certificate file path]' } ]` | | **DEBUG** | Send debug information to a log file | `bool` | `False` | | | **LOGGING** | Logging configuration dictionary | `dict` | Not set. | | | **DEFAULT\_NEXT\_URL** | Custom target redirect URL after the user get logged in. Default to /admin if not set. This setting will be overwritten if you have parameter `?next=` specificed in the login URL. | `str` | `admin:index` | `https://app.example.com/account/login` | | **CREATE\_USER** | Determines if a new Django user should be created for new users | `bool` | `True` | | | **CREATE\_GROUPS** | Determines if a new Django group should be created if the SAML2 Group does not exist | `bool` | `False` | | | **NEW\_USER\_PROFILE** | Default settings for newly created users | `dict` | `{'USER_GROUPS': [], 'ACTIVE_STATUS': True, 'STAFF_STATUS': False, 'SUPERUSER_STATUS': False}` | | | **ATTRIBUTES\_MAP** | Mapping of Django user attributes to SAML2 user attributes | `dict` | `{'email': 'user.email', 'username': 'user.username', 'first_name': 'user.first_name', 'last_name': 'user.last_name', 'token': 'token'}` | `{'your.field': 'SAML.field'}` | | **TOKEN\_REQUIRED** | Set this to `False` if you don't require the token parameter in the SAML assertion (in the attributes map) | `bool` | `True` | | | **TRIGGER** | Hooks to trigger additional actions during user login and creation flows. These `TRIGGER` hooks are strings containing a [dotted module name](https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/modules.html#packages) which point to a method to be called. The referenced method should accept a single argument: a dictionary of attributes and values sent by the identity provider, representing the user's identity. Triggers will be executed only if they are set. | `dict` | `{}` | | | **TRIGGER.GET\_USER** | A method to be called upon getting an existing user. This method will be called before the new user is logged in and is used to customize the retrieval of an existing user record. This method should accept ONE parameter of user dict and return a User model instance or none. | `str` | `None` | `my_app.models.users.get` | | **TRIGGER.CREATE\_USER** | A method to be called upon new user creation. This method will be called before the new user is logged in and after the user's record is created. This method should accept ONE parameter of user dict. | `str` | `None` | `my_app.models.users.create` | | **TRIGGER.BEFORE\_LOGIN** | A method to be called when an existing user logs in. This method will be called before the user is logged in and after the SAML2 identity provider returns user attributes. This method should accept ONE parameter of user dict. | `str` | `None` | `my_app.models.users.before_login` | | **TRIGGER.AFTER\_LOGIN** | A method to be called when an existing user logs in. This method will be called after the user is logged in and after the SAML2 identity provider returns user attributes. This method should accept TWO parameters of session and user dict. | `str` | `None` | `my_app.models.users.after_login` | | **TRIGGER.GET\_METADATA\_AUTO\_CONF\_URLS** | A hook function that returns a list of metadata Autoconf URLs. This can override the `METADATA_AUTO_CONF_URL` to enumerate all existing metadata autoconf URLs. | `str` | `None` | `my_app.models.users.get_metadata_autoconf_urls` | | **TRIGGER.CUSTOM\_DECODE\_JWT** | A hook function to decode the user JWT. This method will be called instead of the `decode_jwt_token` default function and should return the user_model.USERNAME_FIELD. This method accepts one parameter: `token`. | `str` | `None` | `my_app.models.users.decode_custom_token` | | **TRIGGER.CUSTOM\_CREATE\_JWT** | A hook function to create a custom JWT for the user. This method will be called instead of the `create_jwt_token` default function and should return the token. This method accepts one parameter: `user`. | `str` | `None` | `my_app.models.users.create_custom_token` | | **TRIGGER.CUSTOM\_TOKEN\_QUERY** | A hook function to create a custom query params with the JWT for the user. This method will be called after `CUSTOM_CREATE_JWT` to populate a query and attach it to a URL; should return the query params containing the token (e.g., `?token=encoded.jwt.token`). This method accepts one parameter: `token`. | `str` | `None` | `my_app.models.users.get_custom_token_query` | | **ASSERTION\_URL** | A URL to validate incoming SAML responses against. By default, `django-saml2-auth` will validate the SAML response's Service Provider address against the actual HTTP request's host and scheme. If this value is set, it will validate against `ASSERTION_URL` instead - perfect for when Django is running behind a reverse proxy. | `str` | `https://example.com` | | | **ENTITY\_ID** | The optional entity ID string to be passed in the 'Issuer' element of authentication request, if required by the IDP. | `str` | `None` | `https://exmaple.com/sso/acs` | | **NAME\_ID\_FORMAT** | Set to the string `'None'`, to exclude sending the `'Format'` property of the `'NameIDPolicy'` element in authentication requests. | `str` | `JWT Signing Algorithm and Settings
Both symmetric and asymmetric signing functions are supported. If you want to use symmetric signing using a secret key, use either of the following algorithms plus a secret key:
- HS256
- HS384
- HS512
{
...
'USE_JWT': True,
'JWT_ALGORITHM': 'HS256',
'JWT_SECRET': 'YOU.ULTRA.SECURE.SECRET',
...
}
Otherwise if you want to use your PKI key-pair to sign JWT tokens, use either of the following algorithms and then set the following fields:
- RS256
- RS384
- RS512
- ES256
- ES256K
- ES384
- ES521
- ES512
- PS256
- PS384
- PS512
- EdDSA
{
...
'USE_JWT': True,
'JWT_ALGORITHM': 'RS256',
'JWT_PRIVATE_KEY': '--- YOUR PRIVATE KEY ---',
'JWT_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSPHRASE': 'your.passphrase', # Optional, if your private key is encrypted
'JWT_PUBLIC_KEY': '--- YOUR PUBLIC KEY ---',
...
}
Note: If both PKI fields and JWT_SECRET
are defined, the JWT_ALGORITHM
decides which method to use for signing tokens.
Custom token triggers
This is an example of the functions that could be passed to the TRIGGER.CUSTOM_CREATE_JWT
(it uses the DRF Simple JWT library) and to TRIGGER.CUSTOM_TOKEN_QUERY
:
from rest_framework_simplejwt.tokens import RefreshToken
def get_custom_jwt(user):
"""Create token for user and return it"""
return RefreshToken.for_user(user)
def get_custom_token_query(refresh):
"""Create url query with refresh and access token"""
return "?%s%s%s%s%s" % ("refresh=", str(refresh), "&", "access=", str(refresh.access_token))
Customize Error Messages
The default permission denied
, error
and user welcome
page can be overridden.
To override these pages put a template named 'django_saml2_auth/error.html', 'django_saml2_auth/welcome.html' or 'django_saml2_auth/denied.html' in your project's template folder.
If a 'django_saml2_auth/welcome.html' template exists, that page will be shown to the user upon login instead of the user being redirected to the previous visited page. This welcome page can contain some first-visit notes and welcome words. The Django user object is available within the template as the user
template variable.
To enable a logout page, add the following lines to urls.py
, before any urlpatterns
:
# The following line will replace the default user logout with the signout page (optional)
url(r'^accounts/logout/$', django_saml2_auth.views.signout),
# The following line will replace the default admin user logout with the signout page (optional)
url(r'^admin/logout/$', django_saml2_auth.views.signout),
To override the built in signout page put a template named 'django_saml2_auth/signout.html' in your project's template folder.
If your SAML2 identity provider uses user attribute names other than the defaults listed in the settings.py
ATTRIBUTES_MAP
, update them in settings.py
.
For Okta Users
I created this plugin originally for Okta. The METADATA_AUTO_CONF_URL
needed in settings.py
can be found in the Okta Web UI by navigating to the SAML2 app's Sign On
tab. In the Settings
box, you should see:
Identity Provider metadata is available if this application supports dynamic configuration.
The Identity Provider metadata
link is the METADATA_AUTO_CONF_URL
.
More information can be found in the Okta Developer Documentation.
Release Process
I adopted a reasonably simple release process, which is almost automated, except for two actions that needed to be taken to start a release:
- Tag the
main
branch locally with the thevSEMVER
, e.g.v3.9.0
, and push the tag. - After the tag is pushed, the release process will be triggered automatically.
- The release process will:
- run the linters and tests.
- build the binary and source package.
- publish the package to PyPI.
- create a new release with auto-generated release notes on the tag.
- upload the SBOM artifacts and build artifacts to the release.