diff --git a/.coveragerc b/.coveragerc
index ac42c385..d93a9446 100644
--- a/.coveragerc
+++ b/.coveragerc
@@ -5,3 +5,4 @@ omit =
     /*/__init__.py
     /setup.py
     /*/migrations/*
+    openwisp_utils/api/mixins.py
diff --git a/openwisp_utils/api/mixins.py b/openwisp_utils/api/mixins.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..7d30ae92
--- /dev/null
+++ b/openwisp_utils/api/mixins.py
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+from openwisp_users.api.authentication import BearerAuthentication
+from openwisp_users.api.permissions import DjangoModelPermissions
+from rest_framework.authentication import SessionAuthentication
+from rest_framework.permissions import IsAuthenticated
+
+
+class ProtectedAPIMixin(object):
+    authentication_classes = [BearerAuthentication, SessionAuthentication]
+    permission_classes = [
+        IsAuthenticated,
+        DjangoModelPermissions,
+    ]