How to disable Django's CSRF validation?

I have commented out csrf processor and middleware lines in settings.py:

122 
123 TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS = (
124     'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
125 #    'django.core.context_processors.csrf',
126     'django.core.context_processors.request',
127     'django.core.context_processors.static',
128     'cyathea.processors.static',
129 )
130 
131 MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = (
132     'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
133     'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
134 #    'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
135     'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
136     'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
137     'django.middleware.locale.LocaleMiddleware',
138     # Uncomment the next line for simple clickjacking protection:
139     # 'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
140 )

But when I use Ajax to send a request, Django still respond 'csrf token is incorrect or missing', and after adding X-CSRFToken to headers, the request would succeed.

What is going on here ?

If you just need some views not to use CSRF, you can use @csrf_exempt:

from django.views.decorators.csrf import csrf_exempt

@csrf_exempt
def my_view(request):
    return HttpResponse('Hello world')

You can find more examples and other scenarios in the Django documentation:

• https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/csrf/#edge-cases

To disable CSRF for class-based views, the following worked for me.

I'm using Django 1.10 and Python 3.5.2

from django.utils.decorators import method_decorator
from django.views.decorators.csrf import csrf_exempt

@method_decorator(csrf_exempt, name='dispatch')
class TestView(View):
    def post(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
        return HttpResponse('Hello world')

In setting.py in MIDDLEWARE you can simply remove/comment this line:

'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',

The problem here is that SessionAuthentication performs its own CSRF validation. That is why you get the CSRF missing error even when the CSRF Middleware is commented. You could add @csrf_exempt to every view, but if you want to disable CSRF and have session authentication for the whole app, you can add an extra middleware like this -

class DisableCSRFMiddleware(object):

def __init__(self, get_response):
    self.get_response = get_response

def __call__(self, request):
    setattr(request, '_dont_enforce_csrf_checks', True)
    response = self.get_response(request)
    return response

I created this class in myapp/middle.py Then import this middleware in Middleware in settings.py

MIDDLEWARE = [
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    #'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
    'myapp.middle.DisableCSRFMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',

]

That works with DRF on django 1.11

For Django 2:

from django.utils.deprecation import MiddlewareMixin


class DisableCSRF(MiddlewareMixin):
    def process_request(self, request):
        setattr(request, '_dont_enforce_csrf_checks', True)

That middleware must be added to settings.MIDDLEWARE when appropriate (in your test settings for example).

Note: the setting isn't not called MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES anymore.

The answer might be inappropriate, but I hope it helps you

class DisableCSRFOnDebug(object):
    def process_request(self, request):
        if settings.DEBUG:
            setattr(request, '_dont_enforce_csrf_checks', True)

Having middleware like this helps to debug requests and to check csrf in production servers.

If you want disable it in Global, you can write a custom middleware, like this

from django.utils.deprecation import MiddlewareMixin

class DisableCsrfCheck(MiddlewareMixin):

    def process_request(self, req):
        attr = '_dont_enforce_csrf_checks'
        if not getattr(req, attr, False):
            setattr(req, attr, True)

then add this class youappname.middlewarefilename.DisableCsrfCheck to MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES lists, before django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware

CSRF can be enforced at the view level, which can't be disabled globally.

In some cases this is a pain, but um, "it's for security". Gotta retain those AAA ratings.

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/csrf/#contrib-and-reusable-apps

Before using this solution, please read this link from documentation

---

I solved this problem with the following two steps:

1. Add this class to an utils.py file:

   from <your-project-name> import settings
   class DisableCSRF(MiddlewareMixin):
      def process_request(self, request):
         if settings.DEBUG:
            setattr(request, '_dont_enforce_csrf_checks', True)
   

2. And in the settings.py file, add above middleware to the MIDDLEWARE list:

   ...
   MIDDLEWARE = [
       ...
       'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
       ...
       '<path-of-utils.py>.utils.DisableCSRF',
   ]
   ...