feat: grant staff access to superusers automatically#38848
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Abdul-Muqadim-Arbisoft wants to merge 1 commit into
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feat: grant staff access to superusers automatically#38848Abdul-Muqadim-Arbisoft wants to merge 1 commit into
Abdul-Muqadim-Arbisoft wants to merge 1 commit into
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Django's is_superuser and is_staff are independent flags, so a superuser does not get the is_staff access that gates the Django admin and various staff-only Studio/LMS views. Since a superuser can grant itself is_staff at any time, that split offers no protection and is only surprising. Add a pre_save signal on the User model that marks any superuser as staff, and a data migration to backfill existing superusers. Discussion: https://discuss.openedx.org/t/shouldnt-superuser-automatically-inherit-staff-access-in-open-edx/18657
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Description
Django's
is_superuserandis_staffare independent flags. A superuser bypasses Django's permission checks, but it isis_staffthat actually gates the Django admin and a number of staff-only Studio/LMS views. As a result, a superuser can end up unable to reach the admin or those views until someone also setsis_staff, which is confusing and offers no real protection, since a superuser can grant itselfis_staffat any time.This change makes every superuser a staff user automatically:
pre_savesignal (common/djangoapps/student/signals/receivers.py),grant_staff_access_to_superuserssetsis_staff = Trueon any user being saved withis_superuser = True. It runs before the DB write, so there is noextra query and no signal recursion. Fixture (
raw) loads are skipped.student/migrations/0050_grant_staff_to_existing_superusers.py), backfills existing superusers (is_superuser=True, is_staff=False → is_staff=True) in a single bulk update, since the signal only affects future saves. Thereverse operation is intentionally a no-op.
Behavior is one-directional by design: it grants staff to superusers but does not remove staff when a user stops being a superuser.
Supporting information
Forum discussion: https://discuss.openedx.org/t/shouldnt-superuser-automatically-inherit-staff-access-in-open-edx/18657
Feanil suggested "a small signal handler or something that would just grant all superusers the
staffrole as well", this implements exactly that, plus a one-time backfill for existing installs.Testing instructions
is_superuser=Trueandis_staff=False, save it, and confirmis_staffis nowTrue.is_staffvalue is left untouched.