middleware.py

from django.contrib.auth.models import User
import base64

class HTTPBasicAuthMiddleware(object):

    def process_request(self, request):
        
        authorization = request.META.get('HTTP_AUTHORIZATION', None)
        
        if authorization:
            
            try:

                (scheme, token) = authorization.split(' ')
                
                if scheme.lower() == 'basic':
                
                    user_pass = base64.b64decode(token)
                    (username, password) = user_pass.split(':')
                
                    user = User.objects.get(username=username)
                    if user.check_password(password):
                        request.user = user
                
            except User.DoesNotExist:
                pass # handle case of valid auth header, but user does not exist
            
            except:
                pass # handle case of invalid auth header