tiangolo/fastapi · error · HTTPException

Inactive user

Error message

Inactive user

What it means

Disabled-account gate in the scopes tutorial, running AFTER scope validation inside get_current_active_user. The alice fixture is seeded with disabled=True, so even a valid JWT carrying the correct scopes for alice is rejected with HTTP 400. Reaching here means authentication AND authorization both passed; only the disabled flag fails.

Solutions

1. Use johndoe (disabled=False) for normal requests.
2. Set alice.disabled = False in fake_users_db if alice must be usable.
3. Return 403 Forbidden instead of 400 for disabled-but-authenticated, correctly-scoped users.

Example fix

// before
if current_user.disabled:
    raise HTTPException(status_code=400, detail="Inactive user")

// after
if current_user.disabled:
    raise HTTPException(status_code=status.HTTP_403_FORBIDDEN, detail="Inactive user")

import jwt
def user_disabled_for_token(token: str, db: dict) -> bool:
    payload = jwt.decode(token, SECRET_KEY, algorithms=["HS256"])
    u = db.get(payload.get("sub"))
    return bool(u and u.get("disabled"))

from typing import TypeGuard
def is_active_user(u: dict) -> TypeGuard[dict]:
    return not u.get("disabled", False)

import httpx
try:
    r = httpx.get("/users/me/", headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {token}"})
    r.raise_for_status()
except httpx.HTTPStatusError as e:
    if e.response.status_code in (400, 403) and "Inactive" in e.response.text:
        prompt_reactivation()

When it happens

Trigger: Authenticate as alice (POST /token with username=alice, correct password and the needed scope), then call GET /users/me/ — JWT, user lookup, and scope checks all pass, then line 146 raises because alice.disabled is True.

Common situations: Using alice to exercise the disabled path; suspended accounts in production; forgetting to flip disabled after reactivating a fixture.

Related errors

• Inactive user
• Inactive user
• Incorrect username or password
• Incorrect username or password
• Not enough permissions

AI-assisted analysis of tiangolo/fastapi@3e8d1526d8 (2026-08-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d3af55f814ec16a8. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at docs_src/security/tutorial005_an_py310.py:147

        raise credentials_exception
    user = get_user(fake_users_db, username=token_data.username)
    if user is None:
        raise credentials_exception
    for scope in security_scopes.scopes:
        if scope not in token_data.scopes:
            raise HTTPException(
                status_code=status.HTTP_401_UNAUTHORIZED,
                detail="Not enough permissions",
                headers={"WWW-Authenticate": authenticate_value},
            )
    return user


async def get_current_active_user(
    current_user: Annotated[User, Security(get_current_user, scopes=["me"])],
):
    if current_user.disabled:
        raise HTTPException(status_code=400, detail="Inactive user")
    return current_user


@app.post("/token")
async def login_for_access_token(
    form_data: Annotated[OAuth2PasswordRequestForm, Depends()],
) -> Token:
    user = authenticate_user(fake_users_db, form_data.username, form_data.password)
    if not user:
        raise HTTPException(status_code=400, detail="Incorrect username or password")
    access_token_expires = timedelta(minutes=ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRE_MINUTES)
    access_token = create_access_token(
        data={"sub": user.username, "scope": " ".join(form_data.scopes)},
        expires_delta=access_token_expires,
    )
    return Token(access_token=access_token, token_type="bearer")

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