Snippet

Custom Rate Limiting Middleware Using Django Cache System

Django middleware intercepts incoming HTTP requests before view execution. By leveraging Django's low-level cache API inside a middleware __call__ method, IP address request frequencies can be monitored and throttled dynamically to enhance endpoint security.

snippet.py

python

from django.core.cache import cache
from django.http import HttpResponseTooManyRequests
 
class SimpleRateLimitMiddleware:
    def __init__(self, get_response):
        self.get_response = get_response
 
    def __call__(self, request):
        client_ip = request.META.get('REMOTE_ADDR', '127.0.0.1')
        cache_key = f"rl_count:{client_ip}"
        request_count = cache.get(cache_key, 0)
 
        if request_count >= 100:
            return HttpResponseTooManyRequests("Rate limit exceeded. Try again in 60 seconds.")
 
        cache.set(cache_key, request_count + 1, timeout=60)
        return self.get_response(request)

django

Breakdown

def __init__(self, get_response):

Initializes the middleware instance once when the web server starts, accepting the next handler.

client_ip = request.META.get('REMOTE_ADDR', '127.0.0.1')

Extracts the client IP address from the request headers to construct a unique cache key.

if request_count >= 100:

Checks if the threshold for maximum allowed requests within the time window has been breached.

cache.set(cache_key, request_count + 1, timeout=60)

Increments counter in cache storage with an expiration period of 60 seconds.

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Custom Rate Limiting Middleware Using Django Cache System

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