plain.passwords

Password hashing, validation, and authentication views for Plain.

• Overview
• Password hashing
• Password validation
• PasswordField
• Views
  • Login
  • Signup
  • Password change
  • Password reset
• Forms
• Settings
• FAQs
• Installation

Overview

You can hash and verify passwords using the hash_password and check_password functions:

from plain.passwords.hashers import hash_password, check_password

# Hash a password for storage
hashed = hash_password("my-secret-password")
# Returns something like: pbkdf2_sha256$720000$abc123...$xyz789...

# Verify a password against a hash
is_valid = check_password("my-secret-password", hashed)
# Returns True

For user authentication, you can use the built-in views. Add PasswordLoginView to your URLs:

# app/urls.py
from plain.urls import path
from plain.passwords.views import PasswordLoginView

urlpatterns = [
    path("login/", PasswordLoginView, name="login"),
]

Password hashing

Passwords are hashed using PBKDF2 with SHA256 by default. The hash_password function generates a secure hash:

from plain.passwords.hashers import hash_password

hashed = hash_password("user-password")

The check_password function verifies a password against a stored hash. It also handles automatic hash upgrades when the hashing algorithm changes:

from plain.passwords.hashers import check_password

def setter(new_hash):
    # Called when the hash needs to be upgraded
    user.password = new_hash
    user.update()

is_valid = check_password("user-password", stored_hash, setter=setter)

You can configure which hashers are available via the PASSWORD_HASHERS setting. The first hasher in the list is used for new passwords:

# app/settings.py
PASSWORD_HASHERS = [
    "plain.passwords.hashers.PBKDF2PasswordHasher",
]

To create a custom hasher, subclass BasePasswordHasher and implement the required methods.

Password validation

Three validators are included for checking password strength:

• MinimumLengthValidator - Ensures passwords meet a minimum length (default: 8 characters)
• CommonPasswordValidator - Rejects passwords from a list of 20,000 common passwords
• NumericPasswordValidator - Rejects passwords that are entirely numeric

from plain.passwords.validators import (
    MinimumLengthValidator,
    CommonPasswordValidator,
    NumericPasswordValidator,
)
from plain.exceptions import ValidationError

validators = [
    MinimumLengthValidator(min_length=10),
    CommonPasswordValidator(),
    NumericPasswordValidator(),
]

password = "test"
for validator in validators:
    try:
        validator(password)
    except ValidationError as e:
        print(e.message)

PasswordField

PasswordField is a model field that automatically hashes passwords before saving. It includes all three validators by default:

from plain import postgres
from plain.postgres import types
from plain.passwords.models import PasswordField

@postgres.register_model
class User(postgres.Model):
    email: str = types.EmailField()
    password = PasswordField()

    model_options = postgres.Options(
        constraints=[
            postgres.UniqueConstraint(fields=["email"], name="unique_email"),
        ],
    )

When you assign a raw password, it gets hashed automatically on save:

user = User(email="user@example.com", password="my-password")
user.create()
# user.password is now a hash like: pbkdf2_sha256$720000$...

For better type checking support, you can import from plain.passwords.types:

from plain.passwords.types import PasswordField

Views

All views are designed to work with plain.auth for session management.

Login

PasswordLoginView handles email/password authentication:

from plain.urls import path
from plain.passwords.views import PasswordLoginView

urlpatterns = [
    path("login/", PasswordLoginView, name="login"),
]

You can customize the success URL:

class MyLoginView(PasswordLoginView):
    success_url = "/dashboard/"

Signup

PasswordSignupView creates new users with email and password:

from plain.urls import path
from plain.passwords.views import PasswordSignupView

urlpatterns = [
    path("signup/", PasswordSignupView, name="signup"),
]

Password change

PasswordChangeView lets authenticated users change their password by entering their current password:

from plain.urls import path
from plain.passwords.views import PasswordChangeView

urlpatterns = [
    path("password/change/", PasswordChangeView, name="password_change"),
]

Password reset

Password reset requires two views and an email template. PasswordForgotView sends the reset email, and PasswordResetView handles the token and new password:

from plain.urls import path
from plain.passwords.views import PasswordForgotView, PasswordResetView

class MyPasswordForgotView(PasswordForgotView):
    reset_confirm_url_name = "password_reset"
    success_url = "/login/"

class MyPasswordResetView(PasswordResetView):
    success_url = "/login/"

urlpatterns = [
    path("password/forgot/", MyPasswordForgotView, name="password_forgot"),
    path("password/reset/", MyPasswordResetView, name="password_reset"),
]

You need to create a password_reset email template for plain.email. The template receives email, user, and url in its context.

Forms

Several forms are available for building custom authentication flows:

• PasswordLoginForm - Email and password login
• PasswordSignupForm - User registration with password confirmation
• PasswordSetForm - Set a new password without the old one
• PasswordChangeForm - Change password with current password verification
• PasswordResetForm - Request a password reset email

Settings

See default_settings.py for more details.

FAQs

How do I customize the login form?

Subclass PasswordLoginForm and set form_class on your view:

from plain.passwords.forms import PasswordLoginForm
from plain.passwords.views import PasswordLoginView

class MyLoginForm(PasswordLoginForm):
    # Add custom fields or validation
    pass

class MyLoginView(PasswordLoginView):
    form_class = MyLoginForm

How do I customize password validation?

Pass custom validators to PasswordField:

from plain.passwords.models import PasswordField
from plain.passwords.validators import MinimumLengthValidator

password = PasswordField(validators=[
    MinimumLengthValidator(min_length=12),
])

How do I use a different hashing algorithm?

Add your hasher to PASSWORD_HASHERS. The first one is used for new passwords:

PASSWORD_HASHERS = [
    "myapp.hashers.Argon2PasswordHasher",
    "plain.passwords.hashers.PBKDF2PasswordHasher",  # For existing passwords
]

How long are password reset tokens valid?

By default, tokens expire after 1 hour. Override reset_token_max_age on PasswordResetView to change this:

class MyPasswordResetView(PasswordResetView):
    reset_token_max_age = 60 * 60 * 24  # 24 hours

Installation

Install the package from PyPI:

uv add plain.passwords

Add the password field to your User model:

# app/models.py
from plain import postgres
from plain.postgres import types
from plain.passwords.models import PasswordField

@postgres.register_model
class User(postgres.Model):
    email: str = types.EmailField()
    password = PasswordField()

    model_options = postgres.Options(
        constraints=[
            postgres.UniqueConstraint(fields=["email"], name="unique_email"),
        ],
    )

Add login and logout views to your URLs:

# app/urls.py
from plain.urls import path
from plain.auth.views import LogoutView
from plain.passwords.views import PasswordLoginView

urlpatterns = [
    path("login/", PasswordLoginView, name="login"),
    path("logout/", LogoutView, name="logout"),
]

Create templates for your views. For the login view, create templates/passwords/passwordlogin.html:

{% extends "base.html" %}

{% block content %}
<form method="post">
    <div>
        <label for="{{ form.email.html_id }}">Email</label>
        <input
            type="email"
            name="{{ form.email.html_name }}"
            id="{{ form.email.html_id }}"
            value="{{ form.email.value }}"
        >
        {% for error in form.email.errors %}
        <p>{{ error }}</p>
        {% endfor %}
    </div>

    <div>
        <label for="{{ form.password.html_id }}">Password</label>
        <input
            type="password"
            name="{{ form.password.html_name }}"
            id="{{ form.password.html_id }}"
        >
        {% for error in form.password.errors %}
        <p>{{ error }}</p>
        {% endfor %}
    </div>

    <button type="submit">Log in</button>
</form>
{% endblock %}

For password resets, install plain.email and create a reset email template.