Django REST Framework - Separate permissions per methods

I am writing an API using Django REST Framework and I am wondering if can specify permissions per method when using class based views.

Reading the documentation I see that is quite easy to do if you are writing function based views, just using the @permission_classes decorator over the function of the views you want to protect with permissions. However, I don't see a way to do the same when using CBVs with the APIView class, because then I specify the permissions for the full class with the permission_classes attribute, but that will be applied then to all class methods (get, post, put...).

So, is it possible to have the API views written with CBVs and also specify different permissions for each method of a view class?

Permissions are applied to the entire View class, but you can take into account aspects of the request (like the method such as GET or POST) in your authorization decision.

See the built-in IsAuthenticatedOrReadOnly as an example:

SAFE_METHODS = ['GET', 'HEAD', 'OPTIONS']

class IsAuthenticatedOrReadOnly(BasePermission):
    """
    The request is authenticated as a user, or is a read-only request.
    """

    def has_permission(self, request, view):
        if (request.method in SAFE_METHODS or
            request.user and
            request.user.is_authenticated()):
            return True
        return False

I've come across the same problem when using CBV's, as i have fairly complex permissions logic depending on the request method.

The solution i came up with was to use the third party 'rest_condition' app listed at the bottom of this page

http://www.django-rest-framework.org/api-guide/permissions

https://github.com/caxap/rest_condition

I just split the permissions flow logic so that each branch will run, depending on the request method.

from rest_condition import And, Or, Not

class MyClassBasedView(APIView):

    permission_classes = [Or(And(IsReadOnlyRequest, IsAllowedRetrieveThis, IsAllowedRetrieveThat),
                             And(IsPostRequest, IsAllowedToCreateThis, ...),
                             And(IsPutPatchRequest, ...),
                             And(IsDeleteRequest, ...)]

So the 'Or' determines which branch of the permissions should run depending on the request method and the 'And' wraps the permissions relating to the accepted request method, so all must pass for permission to be granted. You can also mix 'Or', 'And' and 'Not' within each flow to create even more complex permissions.

The permission classes to run each branch simply look like this,

class IsReadyOnlyRequest(permissions.BasePermission):

    def has_permission(self, request, view):
        return request.method in permissions.SAFE_METHODS


class IsPostRequest(permissions.BasePermission):

    def has_permission(self, request, view):
        return request.method == "POST"


... #You get the idea

Update 30 March 2020: My original solution only patched object permissions, not request permissions. I've included an update below to make this work with request permissions as well.

I know this is an old question but I recently ran into the same problem and wanted to share my solution (since the accepted answer wasn't quite what I needed). @GDorn's answer put me on the right track, but it only works with ViewSets because of the self.action

I've solved it creating my own decorator:

def method_permission_classes(classes):
    def decorator(func):
        def decorated_func(self, *args, **kwargs):
            self.permission_classes = classes
            # this call is needed for request permissions
            self.check_permissions(self.request)
            return func(self, *args, **kwargs)
        return decorated_func
    return decorator

Instead of setting the permission_classes property on the function, like the built-in decorator does, my decorator wraps the call and sets the permission classes on the view instance that is being called. This way, the normal get_permissions() doesn't need any changes, since that simply relies on self.permission_classes.

To work with request permissions, we do need to call check_permission() from the decorator, because the it's orginally called in initial() so before the permission_classes property is patched.

Note The permissions set through the decorator are the only ones called for object permissions, but for request permissions they are in addition to the class wide permissions, because those are always checked before the request method is even called. If you want to specify all permissions per method only, set permission_classes = [] on the class.

Example use case:

from rest_framework import views, permissions

class MyView(views.APIView):
    permission_classes = (permissions.IsAuthenticatedOrReadOnly,)  # used for default APIView endpoints
    queryset = MyModel.objects.all()
    serializer_class = MySerializer


    @method_permission_classes((permissions.IsOwnerOfObject,))  # in addition to IsAuthenticatedOrReadOnly
    def delete(self, request, id):
        instance = self.get_object()  # ...

Hope this helps someone running into the same problem!

I ran into this problem and really wanted to use the @permission_classes decorator to mark some custom view methods with specific permissions. I ended up coming up with a mixin:

class PermissionsPerMethodMixin(object):
    def get_permissions(self):
        """
        Allows overriding default permissions with @permission_classes
        """
        view = getattr(self, self.action)
        if hasattr(view, 'permission_classes'):
            return [permission_class() for permission_class in view.permission_classes]
        return super().get_permissions()

An example use case:

from rest_framework.decorators import action, permission_classes  # other imports elided

class MyViewset(PermissionsPerMethodMixin, viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    permission_classes = (IsAuthenticatedOrReadOnly,)  # used for default ViewSet endpoints
    queryset = MyModel.objects.all()
    serializer_class = MySerializer

    @action(detail=False, methods=['get'])
    @permission_classes((IsAuthenticated,))  # overrides IsAuthenticatedOrReadOnly
    def search(self, request):
        return do_search(request)  # ...

This question is about APIView instances, but for anyone landing here looking for a per-method permissions override using the @action decorator within ViewSets:

class SandwichViewSet(ModelViewSet):
  permission_classes = [IsAuthenticated]

  @action(..., permission_classes=[CanSeeIngredients])
  def retrieve__ingredients(self, request):
    ...

If you use ViewSets or ModelViewSets, I think overwriting get_permissions will do the trick.
Take a look at how djoser handles this.

Example:

class UserViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    permission_classes = settings.PERMISSIONS.user  # default

    def get_permissions(self):
        if self.action == "activation":  # per action
            self.permission_classes = settings.PERMISSIONS.activation
        return super().get_permissions()

    @action(["post"], detail=False)  # action
    def activation(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
        pass

    

I ran into a similar issue.

I wanted to allow unauthenticated POSTs but disallow unauthenticated GETs.

An unauthenticated member of the public can submit an item but only an authenticated admin user can retrieve the list of items submitted.

So I built a custom permission class - UnauthenticatedPost - for the POST and then set the list of permission clases to be IsAuthentictaed or UnauthenticatedPost.

Note I only allow gets and posts by setting the allowable methods with http_method_names = ['get', 'post'].

from django.http import HttpResponse
from rest_framework import viewsets
from rest_framework.permissions import BasePermission, IsAuthenticated
from MyAPI.serializers import MyAPISerializer
from MyAPI.models import MyAPI


class UnauthenticatedPost(BasePermission):
    def has_permission(self, request, view):
        return request.method in ['POST']


class MyAPIViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    permission_classes = [IsAuthenticated|UnauthenticatedPost]
    queryset = MyAPI.objects.all().order_by('-TimeSubmitted')
    serializer_class = MyAPISerializer
    http_method_names = ['get', 'post']

We're having the same kind of challenges when it comes to having different permissions for GET, PUT and POST, and have solved this using a customized permission-class:

from rest_framework import permissions

class HasRequiredPermissionForMethod(permissions.BasePermission):
    get_permission_required = None
    put_permission_required = None
    post_permission_required = None

    def has_permission(self, request, view):
        permission_required_name = f'{request.method.lower()}_permission_required'
        if not request.user.is_authenticated:
            return False
        if not hasattr(view, permission_required_name):
            view_name = view.__class__.__name__
            self.message = f'IMPLEMENTATION ERROR: Please add the {permission_required_name} variable in the API view class: {view_name}.'
            return False

        permission_required = getattr(view, permission_required_name)
        if not request.user.has_perm(permission_required):
            self.message = f'Access denied. You need the {permission_required} permission to access this service with {request.method}.'
            return False

        return True

We use this in our API's like this:

class MyAPIView(APIView):
    permission_classes = [HasRequiredPermissionForMethod]
    get_permission_required = 'permission_to_read_this'
    put_permission_required = 'permission_to_update_this'
    post_permission_required = 'permission_to_create_this'

    def get(self, request):
        # impl get

    def put(self, request):
        # impl put

    def post(self, request):
        # impl post