LAN only install

[enboig]

I want to test openwisp in my lan; so long I have been able to install it, but failed to login due to CSRF.

My setup is a proxmox box; I created a LXC with docker and run docker install inside it. I believe one of my limitations is not using domain, and beeing it a headless server, I access through another machine.

Any advice on how to install it to run "locally"?

[nemesifier]

The headless server should not a problem, most users deploy on headless servers.

This issue is usually related to hostname/domain configuration rather than OpenWISP itself.

A recent reference that may help: openwisp/docker-openwisp#366

Could you share:

• The URL you're using to access OpenWISP (IP address, hostname, etc.)
• Whether you're accessing it directly or through a reverse proxy
• The exact CSRF error message shown in the browser or server logs

For local testing, using a local hostname (for example openwisp.local) mapped in /etc/hosts is generally more reliable than accessing the application directly via IP address. Similar issues are often caused by mismatches between the URL used in the browser and the configured allowed/trusted hosts.

[enboig]

docker log:

api-1                | 
api-1                | [6560bf3d6a3b] - WARNING, time: [2026-06-25 11:01:57,568],process: 94, thread: 128485660255936
api-1                | Forbidden (CSRF cookie not set.): /admin/login/
nginx-1              | [c953692ca47d] - - [25/Jun/2026:11:01:57 +0000] "POST /admin/login/?next=/admin/ HTTP/2.0" status: 403 742 "https://openwisp.munchkin-snapper.ts.net/admin/login/?next=/admin/" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:153.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/153.0" http_x_forwarded_for: - - remote_addr: 100.64.149.92 - realip_remote_addr: 100.64.149.92 - real_ip: 100.64.149.92
api-1                | [6560bf3d6a3b] - pid: 94 100.64.149.92 (-) {64 vars in 1169 bytes} [Thu Jun 25 11:01:57 2026] POST /admin/login/?next=/admin/ => generated 1367 bytes in 5 msecs (HTTP/2.0 403) 9 headers in 360 bytes (1 switches on core 1)

[enboig]

Form does have csfr:

<form action="[/admin/login/?next=/admin/](view-source:https://openwisp.munchkin-snapper.ts.net/admin/login/?next=/admin/)" method="post" id="login-form">
  <input type="hidden" name="csrfmiddlewaretoken" value="kNugkx0tVwDmpPCRp03...........IGlz5T4RnMGlig">

[enboig]

I have just found openwisp/docker-openwisp#569 ; I run the "test" there to confirm the issue:

root@openwisp:/opt/openwisp/docker-openwisp# docker exec docker-openwisp-dashboard-1 bash -c \
  "DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=openwisp.settings python3 -c \
  'from django.conf import settings; print(settings.CSRF_COOKIE_DOMAIN)'"
.ts.net
root@openwisp:/opt/openwisp/docker-openwisp# 

It return ".ts.net".

[enboig]

I finally resolved it:

root@openwisp:/opt/openwisp/docker-openwisp# cat customization/configuration/django/custom_django_settings.py 
ROOT_DOMAIN = ".munchkin-snapper.ts.net"
# Override cookie domains
CSRF_COOKIE_DOMAIN = ".munchkin-snapper.ts.net"
SESSION_COOKIE_DOMAIN = ".munchkin-snapper.ts.net"
CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS = ["https://openwisp.munchkin-snapper.ts.net"]
CSRF_COOKIE_SECURE = True
SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE = True
root@openwisp:/opt/openwisp/docker-openwisp# 

I think it is related to openwisp/docker-openwisp#569