Building a Secure Django REST API from Scratch - DjangGuard

Most Django tutorials teach you how to build an API. Very few teach you how to build a secure one. In this article, I'll walk you through DjangGuard - a Django REST API boilerplate I built that comes with security built in from the start. Not as an afterthought. By the end, you'll understand how to implement: JWT authentication with device binding Redis-backed token blacklisting Brute-force login protection Global and endpoint-level rate limiting Argon2 password hashing User agent validation middleware Let's get into it. Why Security Needs to Come First When you build an API, it's easy to focus on features. But the moment your API goes live, it becomes a target. People will try to: Guess passwords over and over Steal tokens and use them from different devices Flood your endpoints with requests Reuse tokens after a user has logged out DjangGuard addresses all of these - and it's designed to be a starting point you can build any project on top of. The Tech Stack Before we dive in, here's