django-titofisto 0.1.1

Django Time-Token File Storage

This is a simple extension to Django’s FileSystemStorage that adds a URL parameter carrying a shared token, which is only valid for a defined period of time.

Functionality

This is a drop-in replacement for the Django FileSystemStorage, usable if media files are served by Django itself. It does currently not work if media files are served from an independent web server.

The storage and its accompanying view do the following:

• When a URL to a storage file is generated, a HMAC-based token is generated

• The token and the timestamp when it was generated are appended as request parameters to the URL

• Upon retrieval of the file through the accompanying view, the requested file name and the passed timestamp are used to recalculate the HMAC-based token

• Only if the tokens match, and a configured timeout has not passed, is the file served

The HMAC-based token ensures that the token is invalidated when:

• The filename changes

• The timestamp changes

• The mtime of the file changes

• The SECRET_KEY changes

The HMAC is salted with the SECRET_KEY.

Installation

To add django-titofisto to a project, first add it as dependency to your project, e.g. using poetry:

$ poetry add django-titofisto

django-titofisto will use the base FileSystemStorage for almost everything, including determining the MEDIA_ROOT. It merely adds a token as URL parameter to whatever the base FileSystemStorage.url() method returns.

Add the following to your settings:

DEFAULT_FILE_STORAGE = "titofisto.TitofistoStorage"
TITOFISTO_TIMEOUT = 3600  # optional, this is the default
TITOFISTO_PARAM_PREFIX = "titofisto_"  # optional, this is the default

Add the following to your URL config:

from django.conf import settings
from django.urls import include, path

urlpatterns += [
    path(settings.MEDIA_URL.removeprefix("/"), include("titofisto.urls")),
]

Django will start serving media files under the configured MEDIA_URL.

Credits

django-titofisto was developed for the AlekSIS school information system by its team.