NetBox HideBox Plugin

NetBox HideBox is a powerful utility for NetBox administrators to clean up and customize the user interface. It allows you to dynamically hide specific form fields and detail-page panels, attributes and custom fields on a per-model basis, filtered by User Groups.

Whether you want to hide internal metadata from specific teams or simplify complex forms for non-technical users, HideBox provides a managed, UI-driven way to do it.

Features

• UI-Driven Configuration: No need to edit Python files to hide things; manage everything through the "HideBox" menu.
• Two kinds of rule:
  • Field Hide Rules hide fields on edit/add forms.
  • Detail View Rules hide whole panels, single attributes or custom fields on an object's detail page — always, or only when they would render empty.
• Dynamic Field Discovery: Automatically inspects NetBox forms and panels to list the available targets for any selected Content Type (Device, IP Address, Virtual Machine, etc.).
• Group-Based Visibility:
  • Hide for all users.
  • Hide only for specific User Groups.
• Safe Integration: Uses safe monkey-patching on the base NetBoxModelForm and on panel rendering, so a rule can never break a NetBox page.
• Toggleable Rules: Easily enable or disable rules without deleting them.
• Per-Session Reveal Toggle: A navbar dropdown lets any logged-in user temporarily show what is hidden — form fields and detail-view panels independently — for their current session, without changing any rules.

Compatibility

Installation

1. Install via Pip

pip install netbox-hidebox

(Alternatively, if installing from source: pip install . from the root of the repository)

2. Enable in NetBox

Add the plugin to your configuration.py:

PLUGINS = [ 'netbox_hidebox', ]

3. Run Migrations

python3 manage.py migrate netbox_hidebox

4. Restart NetBox

sudo systemctl restart netbox netbox-rq

How It Works

1. Middleware: The plugin includes a lightweight middleware that tracks the current user in the request thread.
2. Form Patching: Upon startup, the plugin patches the __init__ method of the core NetBoxModelForm, and the rendering of detail-page panels.
3. Dynamic Logic: Every time a form or detail page is rendered, the plugin checks the active rules matching that model. If the current user falls under a rule, the targeted form fields are converted to HiddenInput widgets, and the targeted panels/attributes/custom fields are dropped from the page.
4. Cheap by Default: Rules are held in NetBox's shared cache, so a model with no rules costs zero extra database queries.

Usage

Creating a Field Hide Rule (forms)

1. Navigate to Plugins > HideBox > Field Hide Rules (forms).
2. Click Add.
3. Name: A descriptive name (e.g., "Hide VM Sensitive Tags").
4. Content Type: Select the model you want to target (e.g., virtualization | virtual machine).
5. Fields to Hide: Once the Content Type is selected, the plugin will load all available form fields. Check the boxes for fields you want to disappear.
6. Hide for Groups:
   • The fields are hidden only for members of the groups you select here.
   • If left empty, the fields are hidden for everyone.
7. Enabled: Keep checked to activate the rule.

Hidden fields keep their stored value: the widget is swapped, the field is not removed, so saving an object never wipes what a user could not see.

Creating a Detail View Rule (panels / attributes / custom fields)

1. Navigate to Plugins > HideBox > Detail View Rules (panels/fields).
2. Click Add.
3. Content Type: The model this applies to. Leave blank to match any model.
4. Target Kind: Whole panel, Single attribute, or Custom field.
5. Target Name: Picked from the discovered targets for that model and kind. Use * to match every target of that kind — for example target kind Single attribute + * + Hide when empty hides every blank built-in field, with no need for one rule per field. A rule naming a specific target always wins over a * rule of the same kind.
6. Mode:
   • Always hide — the target never renders.
   • Hide when empty — it renders only when it has content. For whole panels this is a best-effort check covering the known panel types (info cards, list/table cards, Custom Fields, Comments, Tags, Related Objects); an unrecognised panel type is left alone, so target it by name with Always hide instead.
7. Hide for Groups and Enabled work exactly as for field hide rules.

Revealing What Is Hidden

An eye icon in the top navbar opens a dropdown with two independent switches:

• Form fields — reveal the fields hidden by field-hide rules.
• Detail view — reveal the panels, attributes and custom fields hidden by detail-view rules.

A Show everything / Hide everything entry flips both at once. The icon reflects the state: eye-off (nothing revealed), a hollow eye (one of the two revealed) or a solid eye (both revealed).

Revealing is temporary and useful when you occasionally need to see or edit something hidden. The state is per-session and per-user, and does not modify any rules. Note that reveal is available to all authenticated users, consistent with HideBox being a UI tool rather than a security control.

Security Note

HideBox is a UI/UX enhancement tool.

Hiding a field or panel prevents it from appearing in the browser-based UI. However, this plugin does not modify API permissions or database-level constraints. A user with API access and the correct NetBox permissions could still theoretically read and modify hidden fields via the REST API or custom scripts — and any logged-in user can flip the reveal toggle. For strict security enforcement, always use NetBox's built-in Permissions and Constraints system.