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Django custom authentication backend

Priya Sharma Jan 2026
2 tabs 
from django.contrib.auth.backends import ModelBackend
from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model

User = get_user_model()


class EmailBackend(ModelBackend):
    """Authenticate using email instead of username."""

    def authenticate(self, request, username=None, password=None, **kwargs):
        # username parameter contains email
        try:
            user = User.objects.get(email=username)
        except User.DoesNotExist:
            return None

        if user.check_password(password) and self.user_can_authenticate(user):
            return user

        return None


class TokenBackend(ModelBackend):
    """Authenticate using API token."""

    def authenticate(self, request, token=None, **kwargs):
        if not token:
            return None

        try:
            from api.models import ApiToken
            api_token = ApiToken.objects.select_related('user').get(
                key=token,
                is_active=True
            )
            return api_token.user
        except ApiToken.DoesNotExist:
            return None
2 files · python Explain with highlit

Custom auth backends enable alternative authentication methods. I subclass ModelBackend and override authenticate(). Common use cases include email login, LDAP, OAuth, or custom token auth. The backend returns a user object or None. I add it to AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS in settings. Multiple backends can coexist—Django tries each in order. For permissions, I override get_user_permissions() and get_group_permissions(). This extends authentication beyond username/password without replacing Django's auth system.

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