How to get username from Django Rest Framework JWT token

Question

I am using Django Rest Framework and i've included a 3rd party package called REST framework JWT Auth. It returns a token when you send a username/password to a certain route. Then the token is needed for permission to certain routes. However, how do I get the username from the token? I've looked all through the package documentation and went through StackOverflow. It is a JSON Web Token and I am assuming there is a method like username = decode_token(token) but I haven't found such a method.

Gracious

You have user object in request. Or you are not doing this in view? – Jigging

I am doing this in view but I am new to Django so I don't fully understand how it works. Can you elaborate? – Gracious

Add your view code – Jigging

Answer 1

Basically you could do this

username = request.user.username

Jigging

Seriously ? @sardorbek Why did you edit my code. I am using Camel Case type of coding. Is it really necessary to code with _ ?. There was no need. – Arman

@PrakharTrivedi read pep8 guidlines python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008. It is convention for python community – Jigging

Yeah,I agree with that. But was is really necessary ? There are much better things to do than this. – Arman

@PrakharTrivedi You are answering question of beginner python developer. It is necessary to write answer which complies with python guidlines, because he will copy and paste your code and he will think that this kind of coding style is ok, which is not for our community. – Jigging

Okay Sardorbek. Duly noted (no pun intended). Will keep this in mind from next time. – Arman

@PrakharTrivedi thank you) I just want StackOverflow to be as good as possible. – Jigging

Hello Sardorbek. Can you tell where to use this in your DRF Code ? In View? Serializers ? Thanks. – Melinamelinda

@Addict this can be used everywhere, where request object is passed, but usually this is done in a view – Jigging

It will not work in JWT. – Pe

Answer 2

For me, this worked as RestFrameworkJWT is no longer maintained. So I used the rest_framework_simplejwt package.

from rest_framework_simplejwt.backends import TokenBackend
token = request.META.get('HTTP_AUTHORIZATION', " ").split(' ')[1]
data = {'token': token}
   try:
      valid_data = TokenBackend(algorithm='HS256').decode(token,verify=True)
      user = valid_data['user']
      request.user = user
   except ValidationError as v:
      print("validation error", v)

Acquiesce

verifty=False - Disabling token verification is insecure, don't do this. – Landgraviate

Editing the ans as suggested. @Landgraviate – Acquiesce

"Disabling token verification is insecure, don't do this" -> except if you just need to decode a JWT. In my case the authentication is done at another level and my backend does not have the jwt secret key. This answer is very useful. – Jaysonjaywalk

Answer 3

For me with Django (2.0.1), djangorestframework (3.7.7), djangorestframework-jwt (1.11.0).

I had to do following to get my use back user from token:

        token = request.META.get('HTTP_AUTHORIZATION', " ").split(' ')[1]
        print(token)
        data = {'token': token}
        try:
            valid_data = VerifyJSONWebTokenSerializer().validate(data)
            user = valid_data['user']
            request.user = user
        except ValidationError as v:
            print("validation error", v)

Or you can write a middleware that would set user based on their token.

Schnitzler

I'm getting errors can you please share ur entire middleware file – Harryharsh

Sorry, this is not what the user has asked for. But you can visit the link, it has entire middleware. – Schnitzler

Answer 4

If you are using djangorestframework_simplejwt, to get user object from JWT Token you need to do the following :

token = AccessToken(access_token)
user_id = token.payload['user_id']
user = User.objects.get(id=user_id)

This works well !!

Kook

you didn't include your imports, you didnt include the access_token declaration. this response can be imporved more and better to guidd people in the future once they come accross this answer. – Tolland