AWS Academy Cloud Developing

Module 12 Student Guide

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AWS Training and Certification AWS Academy Cloud Developing

Contents
Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS 4

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Module 12: Developing Secure

Applications on AWS
AWS Academy Cloud
Developing

Welcome to Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Section 1: Introduction
Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Section 1: Introduction.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Module At the end of this module, you should be

objectives able to do the following:
• List two aspects of securing application
• Recall how to authenticate with the AWS
Security Token Service (AWS STS)
• Describe how to build secure applications with
Amazon Cognito
• Secure part of a website with Amazon Cognito

At the end of this module, you should be able to do the following:

• List two aspects of securing applications
• Recall how to authenticate with the AWS Security Token Service (AWS STS)
• Describe how to build secure applications with Amazon Cognito
• Secure part of a website with Amazon Cognito

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Module overview
Sections Lab
1. Introduction • Implementing Application
Authentication Using Amazon
2. Securing network connections Cognito
3. Authenticating with AWS STS
4. Authenticating with Amazon
Cognito

Knowledge check
4

This module includes the following sections:

1. Introduction
2. Securing network connections
3. Authenticating with AWS STS
4. Authenticating with Amazon Cognito

This module also includes a lab on Implementing Application Authentication Using

Amazon Cognito.

Finally, you will complete a knowledge check to test your understanding of key
concepts covered in this module.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Café business requirement

Sofía wants to modify the café website to provide a login for café
employees that gives them access to features that aren’t available to
external users.

Sofía wants to modify the café website to provide a login for café employees that
gives them access to features that aren’t available to external users.

Sofía doesn’t have much experience with authentication and authorization. Faythe,
an AWS developer and café regular, suggests using Amazon Cognito. The service is
easy to set up and integrate with the AWS services that the café website uses.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Amazon Cognito as part of developing a cloud

application

The diagram on this slide gives an overview of the application that you will build
through the labs in this course. The highlighted portions are relevant to this module.

As highlighted in the diagram, you will use Amazon Cognito to provide a login for café
employees that gives them access to features that aren’t available to external users.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Application security

This example AWS architecture illustrates the layers of a web-based application.

Recall that with the AWS shared responsibility model, AWS is responsible for the
security of the cloud, and you are responsible for security in the cloud. Developers
must consider security in the cloud at all layers of an application.

You have previously learned about two services that are core to AWS security:
• With Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC), you secure your networks and
subnets, and protect your AWS resources in the cloud.
• With AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), you control access to AWS
resources through policies that grant permissions to users, groups, and roles.

In this module, you'll learn about two aspects of applying security to your application:
• Securing the network connections between application clients and application
servers over the internet
• Controlling user access to AWS resources called by your application

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Section 2: Securing network

connections
Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Section 2: Securing network connections.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Securing connections
1
Transport Layer Security (TLS)/
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
• Use certificates to establish the
identity of websites
• Encrypt network communications
between connected resources

Transport Layer Security (TLS) and its predecessor Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) are open
standards that use public and private certificates to establish the identity of websites
over the internet and resources on private networks. SSL and TLS protocols also
encrypt network communications between connected resources. For example,
Amazon.com uses TLS for all traffic on its website, and AWS uses TLS to secure API
calls to AWS services.

HTTPS connections might use either SSL or TLS. Although the term SSL is still widely
used, TLS is typically being used to secure the connection.

In this example, Elastic Load Balancing simplifies the process of building secure web
applications by terminating HTTPS and TLS traffic from clients at the load balancer.
The load balancer encrypts and decrypts the traffic, instead of requiring each Amazon
Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instance to handle the work for TLS termination.

You can configure Amazon CloudFront to require that viewers use HTTPS so that
connections are encrypted when CloudFront communicates with viewers. You also
can configure CloudFront to use HTTPS with your origin so that connections are
encrypted when CloudFront communicates with your origin. CloudFront performs
SSL/TLS negotiation between the viewer and CloudFront, and between CloudFront
and the origin if the response is not already cached.

In this example, you might set up an origin access identify (OAI) in CloudFront with
Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) bucket permissions so that only
CloudFront can access the bucket through the OAI. This means that users cannot
directly access content on the S3 bucket even if they have the URL.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Certificates and certificate authorities

Certificate authority
(CA)
4. Is issuing CA trusted? 1. CA issues certificate

2. Client requests identification

3. Server sends certificate and public key
5. Client sends encrypted session key
6. Acknowledgement encrypted with session key

Client 7. All data now encrypted with session key Server

(web browser (website)
or application)

10

Certificate authorities, also known as CAs, issue certificates to specific domains.

When a domain presents a certificate that a trusted CA issued, your browser or
application knows it’s safe to make the connection.

The steps listed in the slide show how the TLS and SSL protocols use the certificate to
ensure that the client connecting is a trusted resource.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Challenges with managing certificates

Discovery

Rotation and
Security
renewals
Challenges

Cost Authorization

11

Managing your SSL/TLS certificates presents several challenges:

• Security: Certificates can be vulnerable for many reasons (for example, certificate
name mismatch, use of internal names, missing or misconfigured fields and values,
outdated or weak hashing algorithms, weak keys, and weak cypher suites that
compromise SSL endpoints). It can be challenging to find and fix these
vulnerabilities.
• Discovery: It is not practical to manually gather details about all of the individual
certificates in your network when you have hundreds or thousands of them.
• Rotations and renewals: Manual management of certificate expirations is prone to
error, and could cause you to miss rotations and renewals.
• Authorization: You need to be able to verify that someone is authorized to
approve and issue a certificate.
• Cost: It can be expensive to manage certificates. You must pay a fee to validate
certificates. You must also consider support costs, legal costs (including insurance,
warranties, and so forth), ownership or control costs (such as fees for root-
embedding), and infrastructure costs.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Using ACM
AWS Certificate Manager (ACM)
• Provisions, manages, and deploys public and
private SSL/TLS certificates
• Manages certificate renewal
• Allows use of your own certificate with ACM
Private CA

12

With the AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) service, you can provision, manage, and
deploy public and private SSL/TLS certificates for use with AWS services and your
internal connected resources. ACM removes the time-consuming, manual process to
purchase, upload, and renew SSL/TLS certificates.

With ACM, you can quickly request a certificate and deploy it on AWS resources that
are integrated with ACM. These resources include ELB load balancers, CloudFront
distributions, and APIs on Amazon API Gateway. The service manages certificate
renewals. You can also create private certificates for your internal resources and
centrally manage the certificate lifecycle. Public and private certificates that you
provision through ACM for use with AWS services are free. You pay only for the AWS
resources that you create to run your application.

You can also produce your own certificate with AWS Certificate Manager Private
Certificate Authority.

ACM makes it easy to enable SSL/TLS, which helps organizations to meet regulatory
and compliance requirements for encryption of data in transit.

For more information, see the following resources:

• AWS Certificate Manager: https://aws.amazon.com/certificate-manager/.
• AWS Certificate Manager Private Certificate Authority:
https://aws.amazon.com/certificate-manager/private-certificate-authority/.
• Amazon Trust Services: https://www.amazontrust.com/repository/.

This slide illustrates the use of ACM to act as the CA to generate certificates for both
CloudFront and ELB.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Section 2 key • You can encrypt network

takeaways communications with SSL and TLS
protocols.
• SSL and TLS require a certificate issued
by a CA.
• ACM simplifies management and renewal
of certificates.

13

The following are the key takeaways from this section of the module:
• You can encrypt network communications with SSL and TLS protocols.
• SSL and TLS require a certificate issued by a CA.
• ACM simplifies management and renewal of certificates.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Section 3: Authenticating with AWS

STS
Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

14

Section 3: Authenticating with AWS STS.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Controlling access
2
Use temporary credentials
to grant users access to
application resources with:
• AWS Identity and Access
Management (IAM) roles
• AWS STS
• Amazon Cognito

15

As noted earlier in the module, the second aspect of security that you'll learn about is
controlling application users' access to your application resources.

In the next two sections, you learn about using the AWS Security Token Service (AWS
STS) and Amazon Cognito in conjunction with AWS Identity and Access Management
(IAM) to control access to resources.

As noted on the slide, it is a security best practice to use temporary credentials to

grant permissions to your resource.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Key concepts for access control

• Authentication: Verify the identity of the user
• Authorization: Verify the user's permissions (what the user is allowed to do)
• Identity provider (IdP): Manages identity information and provides authentication
services
• Identity broker: Authenticates credentials against an IdP and retrieves temporary
security credentials from AWS STS
• Standards:
• Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML): Open standard used to exchange
authentication and authorization data between parties
• OpenID Connect (OIDC): Open standard that third-party IdPs use so that other
companies/sites can use them to authenticate users without having to maintain an in-house
user database
• JSON Web Token (JWT): Open standard used to securely transmit information between two
parties
16

To understand how AWS access control works, familiarize yourself with the following
key concepts:
• Authentication: Verifies the user's identity
• Authorization: Verifies the user’s permissions (or what the user is allowed to do)
• Identity provider (IdP): Manages identity information and provides authentication
services
• Identity broker: Software layer that authenticates credentials against an IdP and
retrieves temporary security credentials from AWS STS
• Standards:
• Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML): Open standard used to
exchange authentication and authorization data between parties
• OpenID Connect (OIDC): Open standard that third-party IdPs use so that
other companies or sites can use them to authenticate users without
having to maintain an in-house user database
• JSON Web Token (JWT): Open standard used to securely transmit
information between two parties

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Why use temporary security credentials

Bad practice Best practice

• Embed access keys in • Use IAM roles to retrieve
unencrypted code. temporary security
credentials.
• Share access keys • If IAM roles are not an
between users in an AWS option, use AWS STS to
account. retrieve credentials.

17

As you learned in the IAM module, you can authenticate programmatically to AWS
services through the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI), SDKs, and APIs by using
your AWS access key. The access key is a combination of your access key ID and secret
access key.

Embedding access keys in unencrypted code and sharing security credentials

between users in your AWS account are bad security practices. If your application or
application users need to access AWS services, you should configure temporary
security credentials.

For more information about best practices for temporary security credentials, see
Security Best Practices in IAM at
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/best-practices.html.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Temporary security credentials from AWS STS

• Provided to trusted users to enable them to
access your AWS resources
• Short-lived credentials that consist of an
access key ID, secret access key, and session
token
• Limited in duration to a configurable lifetime
AWS Security
Token Service • Not reusable after they expire
(AWS STS)
• Generated dynamically

18

You can use the AWS Security Token Service (AWS STS) to provide trusted users with
temporary security credentials to access your AWS resources. Temporary security
credentials consist of a short-lived access key ID, secret access key, and session token.

As the name implies, temporary security credentials have a limited lifetime. You can
configure them to last from a few minutes to several hours. After the credentials
expire, AWS no longer recognizes them or allows any kind of access from API requests
that are made with them.

Temporary security credentials are not stored with the user but are generated
dynamically and provided to the user when requested. When (or even before) the
temporary security credentials expire, the user can request new credentials, as long
as the user who requests them still has permissions to do so.

For more information, see the following resources:

• AWS STS API Reference:
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/STS/latest/APIReference/Welcome.html.
• Temporary Security Credentials in IAM:
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_credentials_temp.html.
• AWS Services That Work with IAM:
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_aws-services-
that-wrk-with-iam.html.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

AWS STS trusted users

• IAM users
• For cross-account access
• For applications running on Amazon Elastic
Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances and
other AWS compute services
• Federated identities for external users
• Enterprise (single sign-on)
• Web (social sign-in)

19

AWS STS trusted users can be IAM users or federated identities:

• IAM users: You can establish cross-account access for IAM users in one AWS
account who need temporary access to AWS resources in another AWS account. To
do this, you can provide temporary security credentials to an IAM role, which the
IAM user assumes. You can also use IAM roles with temporary security credentials
to manage access to applications that are running in an Amazon EC2 environment
and other AWS compute services.
• Federated identities: Federated identities are users who sign in to your application
from an authentication system outside of AWS. IAM supports two types of identity
federation:
• Enterprise identity federation: For employees who are on a corporate
network and are authenticated through a SAML 2.0-compatible enterprise
IdP, such as Active Directory or LDAP.
• Web identity federation: For mobile and web-based application users who
are authenticated through an online, third-party IdP, such as Login with
Amazon, Facebook, Google, or any OIDC-compatible IdP.

For federated identities, you do not need to create new AWS identities for users, and
require them to sign in to your application with a separate user name and password.
Instead, users can access your AWS resources directly by using their corporate
network credentials (referred to as single sign-on, or SSO) or a third party, such as
Login with Amazon, Facebook, or Google (referred to as social sign-in).

For more information, see the following resources:

• Identity Providers and Federation:
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles_providers.html.
• Federating Users by Creating a Custom Identity Broker Application:
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_roles_common-
scenarios_federated-users.html#id_roles_common-scenarios_federated-users-
idbroker.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

AWS STS authentication with federated users

20

The following is an explanation of how authentication with AWS STS works for
federated users:
1. A user accesses an application that is backed by AWS.
2. The application calls an identity broker. The identity broker accepts a user’s
identifier as input.
3. (First authentication) The identity broker first authenticates the user’s identity
against an identity provider (IdP), such as Active Directory (for enterprise
federation) or an online, third-party IdP (for web federation).
4. (Second authentication) If the authentication is successful, the identity broker
makes an API call to AWS STS. The call must include an IAM policy and a duration,
along with a policy that specifies the permissions to be granted to the temporary
security credentials.
5. AWS STS uses IAM to confirm that the policy of the IAM user who is making the
API call has permissions to create new tokens.
6. AWS STS returns four values to the identity broker: an access key, secret access
key, session token, and duration (that is, the token’s lifetime).
7. The identity broker returns the temporary security credentials and token to the
application.
8. The application uses the temporary security credentials and token to make
requests to an AWS service, such as Amazon S3.
9. The AWS service uses IAM to confirm that the credentials allow the requested
operation on the given resource.

For more information about how authentication with AWS STS works, see the
following resources:
• AWS Identity and Access Management – Now with Identity Federation:
https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/aws-identity-and-access-management-now-
with-identity-federation/.
• Requesting Temporary Security Credentials:
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_credentials_temp_reques

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

t.html.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

AWS STS authentication with IAM users

21

The following is an explanation of how authentication with AWS STS works with IAM
users:
1. A user accesses an application that is backed by AWS.
2. The application calls an identity broker. The identity broker accepts a user’s
identifier as input.
3. (First authentication) The identity broker first authenticates the user’s identity by
checking whether they are an IAM user.
4. (Second authentication) If the authentication is successful, the identity broker
makes an API call to AWS STS. The call must include an IAM policy and a duration,
along with a policy that specifies the permissions to be granted to the temporary
security credentials.
5. AWS STS uses IAM to confirm that the policy of the IAM user who is making the
API call has permissions to create new tokens.
6. AWS STS returns four values to the identity broker: an access key, secret access
key, session token, and duration (that is, the token’s lifetime).
7. The identity broker returns the temporary security credentials and token to the
application.
8. The application uses the temporary security credentials and token to make
requests to an AWS service, such as Amazon S3.
9. The AWS service uses IAM to confirm that the credentials allow the requested
operation on the given resource.

For more information about how authentication with AWS STS works, see the
following resources:
• AWS Identity and Access Management – Now with Identity Federation:
https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/aws-identity-and-access-management-now-
with-identity-federation/.
• Requesting Temporary Security Credentials:
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_credentials_temp_reques
t.html.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

AWS STS API operations

Operation Returns Set of Temporary Security Credentials to…
AssumeRole Existing IAM users for cross-account access to AWS resources.

Federated users who are authenticated by an organization’s existing

AssumeRoleWithSAML
identity system.

AssumeRoleWithWeb
Federated users who are authenticated through a public IdP.
Identity

Federated users. This API differs from AssumeRole in that the default
GetFederationToken
expiration period is substantially longer (12 hours instead of 1 hour).
Existing IAM users for enhanced security, such as allowing AWS
GetSessionToken requests only when multi-factor authentication (MFA) is enabled for
the IAM user.

22

Different AWS STS API operations return temporary security credentials:

• AssumeRole: Returns a set of temporary security credentials for existing IAM users
to grant cross-account access to AWS resources.
• AssumeRoleWithSAML: Returns a set of temporary security credentials for
federated users who are authenticated by an organization's existing identity
system. The users must also use SAML 2.0 to pass authentication and authorization
information to AWS.
• AssumeRoleWithWebIdentity: Returns a set of temporary security credentials for
federated users who are authenticated through a public IdP, such as Login with
Amazon, Facebook, Google, or any OIDC-compatible identity provider. This API is
useful to create mobile applications or client-based web applications that require
access to AWS in which users do not have their own AWS or IAM identities.
However, instead of directly calling AssumeRoleWithWebIdentity, we recommend
that you use Amazon Cognito and the Amazon Cognito credentials provider with
the AWS SDKs for mobile development.
• GetFederationToken: Returns a set of temporary security credentials for federated
users. This API differs from AssumeRole in that the default expiration period is
substantially longer (12 hours instead of 1 hour).
• GetSessionToken: Returns a set of temporary security credentials for an existing
IAM user. This is useful to provide enhanced security, such as allowing AWS
requests only when multi-factor authentication (MFA) is enabled for the IAM user.

For more information, see the following resources:

• AWS STS API operations:
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/STS/latest/APIReference/Welcome.html.
• Comparing the AWS STS API Operations:
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_credentials_temp_reques
t.html#stsapi_comparison.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Tracking user actions with CloudTrail

CloudTrail captures actions from
authenticated users
• Stores log files in Amazon S3
• Can be configured to respond with
actions or notifications

23

You can use AWS CloudTrail to track the activity of federated users; for example, a
SAML-federated user who terminated an EC2 instance in your account, or a mobile
application user who signed into your application with their Facebook account and
deleted a photo from your S3 bucket. The ability to track federated users can help you
to conduct audits of their activities, which can help you with your compliance and
security efforts. To capture the activity of federated users, CloudTrail records the
AssumeRoleWithSAML and AssumeRoleWithWebIdentity AWS STS API calls.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

CloudTrail: Track federated user actions

2. Determine the Amazon

Resource Name (ARN) of
the IAM role that the
federated user assumed

1. Search for eventName

TerminateInstances

24

To understand how you can use CloudTrail to capture the activity of federated users,
consider this example. The Example.com organization has an IAM administrator
named Alice and an employee named Bob. Example.com has configured its SAML 2.0-
compliant IdP and AWS to permit federated users such as Bob (email address:
[email protected]) to access the AWS Management Console. Bob signs into the
console through SSO by using SAML 2.0, and he terminates an EC2 instance. Alice
learns that a user has terminated the EC2 instance. She uses CloudTrail to identify
which federated user terminated the instance.

First, Alice searches the CloudTrail event logs for the eventName called
TerminateInstances. In the userIdentity section of the event log, Alice determines the
Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the IAM role that the federated user assumed.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

CloudTrail: Track federated user actions (continued)

4. Identify the SAML-federated

user identity in the userName
attribute

3. Search the CloudTrail event logs

for the eventName called
AssumeRoleWithSAML and the
IAM role’s ARN

25

Alice then searches the CloudTrail event logs for the eventName called
AssumeRoleWithSAML that includes the IAM role’s ARN. Finally, Alice identifies Bob
as the federated user in the userName attribute of the userIdentity section of the
CloudTrail event log.

For detailed instructions and links to additional resources, see the How to Easily
Identify Your Federated Users by Using AWS CloudTrail blog post at
https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/how-to-easily-identify-your-federated-users-
by-using-aws-cloudtrail/.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Section 3 key • A best practice is to issue temporary

takeaways credentials to access AWS resources.
• AWS STS provides temporary credentials
for IAM users and external users.
• Use CloudTrail to track actions from
federated (external) users.

26

The following are the key takeaways from this section of the module:
• A best practice is to issue temporary credentials to access AWS resources.
• AWS STS provides temporary credentials for IAM users and external users.
• Use CloudTrail to track actions from federated (external) users.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Section 4: Authenticating with

Amazon Cognito
Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

27

Section 4: Authenticating with Amazon Cognito.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Amazon Cognito

Provides authentication, authorization, and

user management for your web and mobile
applications
• Authenticates user identities through external
IdPs that support SAML or OIDC, social IdPs, and
Amazon Cognito
custom IdPs
• Provides temporary security credentials to access
AWS resources and services

28

The Amazon Cognito service provides authentication, authorization, and user

management for your web and mobile applications.

You can use Amazon Cognito to do the following:

• Create unique identities for your users and authenticate the identities with IdPs.
Amazon Cognito works with external IdPs that support SAML or OIDC, social IdPs
(such as Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon), and your own custom IdPs.
• Provide temporary security credentials to your application to access AWS
resources and services.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Amazon Cognito user pools

and identity pools (federated identities)
User pools Identity pools
(federated identities)
• Directory of users
• Provide sign-in for users • Provide users with temporary
access credentials
• Accept federated identities
from Login with Amazon, • Enable creation of unique
Google, Facebook, or any identities and federate them
SAML or OIDC IdPs with various providers (for
example, an OIDC identity or
Amazon identity)

29

The two main components of Amazon Cognito are user pools and identity pools:
• User pools are user directories that provide sign-up and sign-in options for your
application users. Users can sign in to your web or mobile application through
Amazon Cognito or federate through a third-party IdP. Whether users sign in
directly or through a third party, all members of the user pool have a directory
profile, which you can access through an SDK.
• Identity pools (also called federated identities) provide your users with temporary
security credentials to access other AWS services.

You can have multiple identities for various IdPs. For example, you can set up an
identity for OIDC login and another identity for Apple users to log in.

As you will see, you can use identity pools and user pools separately or together.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

User pool security features and functionality

• Sign-up and sign-in services
• Built-in, customizable login web UI
• Control who can access your API
• Compromised credentials check
• Phone and email verification
• Adaptive authentication

30

Amazon Cognito user pools provide several security features and functionality for
user authentication. As mentioned before, Amazon Cognito offers sign-up and sign-in
services, including social network sign-in with Facebook, Google, and Login with
Amazon, as well as sign-in with SAML identity providers from your user pool. Amazon
Cognito user pools come with a built-in, customizable web UI to sign in users, manage
user directories, and access user profiles.

You can use an Amazon Cognito user pool to control who can access your API in API
Gateway. API Gateway validates the tokens from a successful user pool
authentication, and uses them to grant your users access to resources including AWS
Lambda functions or your own API. You can also use groups in a user pool to control
permissions with API Gateway by mapping group membership to IAM roles. The
groups that a user is a member of are included in the ID token that a user pool
provides when your application user signs in.

Security features such as checks for compromised credentials, phone and email
verification, and adaptive authentication are also included. The compromised
credentials feature protects your users’ accounts by preventing them from reusing
credentials (a user name and password pair) that have been exposed elsewhere. This
feature addresses the issue of users reusing the same credentials for multiple
websites and applications. With adaptive authentication you can configure your user
pool to block suspicious sign-ins or add second factor authentication in response to
an increased risk level.

A security best practice is to never use the same user name and password in different
systems. If an attacker is able to obtain user credentials through a breach of one
system, they could use those user credentials to access other systems. AWS has
formed partnerships and programs so that Amazon Cognito is informed when a set of
credentials has been compromised elsewhere.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

User pools authentication flow

1 Sign in directly through the user pool
or third-party IdP

2 Successfully authenticate and get

tokens from Amazon Cognito

3 Uses tokens to:

• Get AWS credentials to access backend resources and AWS services
• Control access to server-side resources through API Gateway
31

A user pool is a user directory in Amazon Cognito. Your application users can sign in
either directly through a user pool or federate through a third-party IdP.

To authenticate, a user answers successive challenges until authentication either fails

or the user is issued tokens. With these two steps, which can be repeated to include
different challenges, you can support any custom authentication flow.

You can customize your authentication flow with Lambda triggers. These triggers
issue and verify their own challenges as part of the authentication flow. Challenges
might include password verification, MFA enabled, CAPTCHA, or secret questions and
answers.

You can also use a Lambda trigger to perform post-authentication tasks such as
logging events for custom analytics. For more information, see Customizing User Pool
Workflows with Lambda Triggers in the Amazon Cognito Developer Guide at
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cognito/latest/developerguide/cognito-user-identity-
pools-working-with-aws-lambda-triggers.html.

The user pool manages the overhead of handling the tokens that are returned from
social sign-in through Facebook, Google, and Login with Amazon, and from OIDC and
SAML IdPs. Whether users sign in directly or through a third party, all members of the
user pool have a directory profile, which you can access through an SDK. After a
successful user pool sign-in, your web or mobile app will receive user pool tokens
from Amazon Cognito.

You can use those tokens to retrieve AWS credentials that allow your application to
access other AWS services, or you might choose to use them to control access to your
server-side resources or to API Gateway. You can also create user pool groups to
manage permissions and to represent different types of users.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

For more information about the different use cases for Amazon Cognito user pools (including how to
grant your users access to AWS AppSync resources with tokens from a successful Amazon Cognito
authentication), see Common Amazon Cognito Scenarios at
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cognito/latest/developerguide/cognito-scenarios.html.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

User pool tokens

Identity token Access token Refresh token

• Authorizes API • Authorizes API • Contains the
calls. Contains calls based on the information
claims about the custom scopes of necessary to obtain
identity of the specified access- a new ID or access
user (for example, protected token.
name and email). resources.

Signed Signed Encrypted

32

When you sign in by using a user pool, regardless of where the identity lives (in the
pool or coming from a federated third-party IdP), Amazon Cognito gives you three
JWTs:
• ID
• Access
• Refresh

ID and access tokens are signed, not encrypted. The refresh token is encrypted.

The developer’s job is to take the ID and access tokens, and pass them along to
authorize access to application resources.

The client must save the refresh token to silently refresh the ID and access tokens
behind the scenes.

By design, tokens live for a relatively short time. You can choose how long your access
and refresh tokens remain valid. You can configure access tokens to expire in as little
as 5 minutes or as long as 24 hours. You can configure refresh tokens to expire in as
little as 1 hour or as long as 10 years.

These tokens simplify identity for developers and provide the ability, in a lightweight
manner, to pass user context to downstream services so that developers can easily
get this user context.

When you use the user pool directory as your IdP, AWS hosts the entire experience. If
you set up user pools to federate with a third-party IdP, Amazon Cognito user pools
trusts those identities and redirects them as if the users were in its directory.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Example: User pool authentication

with an API Gateway REST API

33

This diagram depicts a flow that uses Amazon Cognito user pools with API Gateway.

The client first authenticates with the user pool and gets the three JWTs in return.

The client then passes the ID and access token in the header as part of the call to API
Gateway.

API Gateway validates the token before it invokes the resource that it integrates with
on the backend (in this example, a Lambda function).

Depending on how you’ve written your API and application, API Gateway might pass
on the ID token or the access token. If you don’t need to further scope the access
allowed, pass the ID token. If you need to scope access further, you can use the
access token and configure predefined attributes within the API method request by
using OAuth scopes.

For details about configuring these options, see Integrate a REST API with an Amazon
Cognito User Pool at
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/apigateway/latest/developerguide/apigateway-
enable-cognito-user-pool.html.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Identity pools overview

34

You can use web identity federation in your mobile apps to enable users to sign in
using supported IdPs (for example, Login with Amazon, Facebook, or Google) and to
trade an authentication token from these providers for temporary AWS security
credentials. The advantage is that you can build mobile apps without writing any
backend code to integrate with these IdPs. In addition, you don’t need to embed
long-term AWS credentials in your app.

With Amazon Cognito identity pools, you can create unique identities for your users
and authenticate them with web IdPs. With an identity, you can obtain temporary,
limited-privilege AWS credentials through AWS STS to access other AWS services.
Amazon Cognito also supports developer-authenticated identities, which provides the
ability to register and authenticate users through your own backend authentication
process. This diagram presents the overall functionality of identity pools.

Users sign in by using the credentials of their IdP of choice. Amazon Cognito validates
user credentials with the information received from the IdP. Amazon Cognito then
replies with permissions to access AWS services through an AWS STS role. Notice that
in this view, Amazon Cognito user pools is just one other IdP, similar to Facebook,
Google, and others.

Amazon Cognito identity pools support the following IdPs:

• Amazon Cognito user pools
• Public IdPs, such as Login with Facebook, Google, or Amazon
• SAML IdPs
• OIDC IdPs
• Developer-provided authenticated identities

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Example: Granting IAM permissions

with Amazon Cognito identity pools

35

This example uses federated identities with IAM-based authorization to provide

temporary IAM credentials.

The client gets JWTs from the Amazon Cognito user pool and uses those to request
temporary AWS credentials. Amazon Cognito identity pools validates the ID token and
then returns temporary credentials.

The client uses these credentials to sign the payload and call the service API.

The service (in this example, Amazon DynamoDB) checks the policy associated with
the temporary credentials and allows the actions that the policy provides.

For more information, see Identity Pools (Federated Identities) Authentication Flow
at https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cognito/latest/developerguide/authentication-
flow.html.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Section 4 key • Use Amazon Cognito to manage user

takeaways access to AWS resources.
• User pools are directories of users who
can access AWS resources.
• You associate users with credentials in
identity pools.
• Authenticate access with Amazon Cognito
by using user pools or IdP credentials.

36

The following are the key takeaways from this section of the module:
• Use Amazon Cognito to manage user access to AWS resources.
• User pools are directories of users who can access AWS resources.
• You associate users with credentials in identity pools.
• Authenticate access with Amazon Cognito by using user pools or IdP credentials.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Lab 12.1:
Implementing
Application
Authentication
Using Amazon
Cognito

37

You will now complete Lab 12.1: Implementing Application Authentication Using
Amazon Cognito.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Lab: Scenario
In this lab, Sofía will use Amazon Cognito to integrate an
authentication mechanism into the website. Frank will be able to log
in to the website to confirm his identity before he requests the
report. Then, she will connect the REST API endpoint to the café
website so that he can make his report request directly from the site.

38

In this lab, you will integrate Amazon Cognito into the café website to provide
authentication so that Frank can login to the website and request the inventory
report.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Lab: Tasks
1. Preparing the development environment
2. Configuring a Cognito user pool and app client
3. Configuring the client app
4. Integrating the Amazon Cognito hosted URI into the website
5. Observing the REST API endpoint details and testing
6. Creating a user for the Amazon Cognito user pool
7. Configuring an API Gateway authorizer
8. Testing the request process from the website

39

In this lab, you will complete the following tasks:

1. Preparing the development environment
2. Configuring a Cognito user pool and app client
3. Configuring the client app
4. Integrating the Amazon Cognito hosted URI into the website
5. Observing the REST API endpoint details and testing
6. Creating a user for the Amazon Cognito user pool
7. Configuring an API Gateway authorizer
8. Testing the request process from the website

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Lab: Final product

40

The diagram summarizes what you will have built after you complete the lab.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

~ 90 minutes

Begin Lab 12.1:

Implementing
Application
Authentication Using
Amazon Cognito

41

It is now time to start the lab.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Lab debrief:
Key takeaways

42

After you complete the lab, your educator might choose to lead a conversation about
the key takeaways from the lab.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Module wrap-up
Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

43

It’s now time to review the module and wrap up with a knowledge check and
discussion of a practice certification exam question.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Module summary
In summary, in this module, you learned how to do the following:
• List two aspects of securing applications
• Recall how to authenticate with AWS STS
• Describe how to build secure applications with Amazon Cognito
• Secure part of a website with Amazon Cognito

44

In summary, in this module, you learned how to do the following:

• List two aspects of securing applications
• Recall how to authenticate with AWS STS
• Describe how to build secure applications with Amazon Cognito
• Secure part of a website with Amazon Cognito

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Complete the
knowledge check

45

It is now time to complete the knowledge check for this module.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Sample exam question

A developer is adding sign-up and sign-in functionality to an application. The application is required to
make an API call to a custom analytics solution to log user sign-in events.

Which combination of actions should the developer take to satisfy these requirements? (Select TWO.)

Identify the key words and phrases before continuing.

The following are the key words and phrases:

• Sign-up and sign-in functionality

• Custom analytics solution

• Sign-in events

46

It is important to fully understand the scenario and question being asked before even
reading the answer choices. Find the keywords in this scenario and question that will
help you find the correct answer.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Sample exam question: Response choices

A developer is adding sign-up and sign-in functionality to an application. The application is required
to make an API call to a custom analytics solution to log user sign-in events.

Which combination of actions should the developer take to satisfy these requirements? (Select TWO.)

Choice Response

A Use Amazon Cognito to provide the sign-up and sign-in functionality.

B Use IAM to provide the sign-up and sign-in functionality.

C Invoke an API Gateway method to make the API call that the post-authentication event initiates.

Store the database credentials in AWS Secrets Manager. Configure Secrets Manager to automatically rotate the
D
credentials.

E Invoke a Lambda function to make the API call that the post-authentication event initiates.

47

Now that we have bolded the keywords in this scenario, let us look at the answers.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Sample exam question: Answer

The correct answers and A and E.

Choice Response

A Use Amazon Cognito to provide the sign-up and sign-in functionality.

B Use IAM to provide the sign-up and sign-in functionality.

C Invoke an API Gateway method to make the API call that the post-authentication event initiates.

Store the database credentials in AWS Secrets Manager. Configure Secrets Manager to automatically rotate the
D
credentials.

E Invoke a Lambda function to make the API call that the post-authentication event initiates.

48

Look at the answer choices and rule them out based on the keywords that were
previously highlighted.

The correct answers are A and E. Use Amazon Cognito to provide the sign-up and
sign-in functionality and invoke a Lambda function to make the API call that the
post-authentication event initiates.

Amazon Cognito provides user sign-up, sign-in, and access control to web and mobile
applications quickly and easily. Users can also create a Lambda function to make an
API call to a custom analytics solution and then invoke that function with an Amazon
Cognito post-authentication trigger.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Additional resources
• Blog posts
• Amazon Cognito Groups and Fine-Grained Role-Based Access Control
• Use AWS Secrets Manager to Simplify the Management of Private Certificates
• Using ACM Private Certificate Authority in a Multi-Account Environment by Using IAM Roles

• Disaster Recovery on AWS workshop

• AWS Security Token Service

49

To learn more about the topics covered in this module, you might find the following
additional resources helpful:
• Blog posts:
• Amazon Cognito Groups and Fine-Grained Role-Based Access Control:
https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-amazon-cognito-groups-and-fine-
grained-role-based-access-control-2/.
• Use AWS Secrets Manager to Simplify the Management of Private
Certificates: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/use-aws-secrets-
manager-to-simplify-the-management-of-private-certificates/.
• Using ACM Private Certificate Authority in a Multi-Account Environment by
Using IAM Roles: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/using-acm-
private-certificate-authority-multi-account-environment-using-iam-roles/.

• Disaster Recovery on AWS workshop

• AWS Security Token Service: https://disaster-
recovery.workshop.aws/en/services/security/iam/sts.html.

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AWS Training and Certification Module 12: Developing Secure Applications on AWS

Thank you

Corrections, feedback, or other questions?

Contact us at https://support.aws.amazon.com/#/contacts/aws-academy.

50

Thank you for completing this module.

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