AWS Security

AWS Cognito

by Stephen Philip Thomas

A comprehensive guide to Amazon Cognito — the managed authentication and authorization service that powers secure sign-in for your web and mobile applications. From User Pools and Identity Pools to Lambda triggers, token management, and real-world website integration, this book equips you with everything you need to implement production-ready authentication on AWS.

What You'll Learn

• Understand Cognito User Pools for user registration, sign-in, and account management
• Configure Identity Pools for federated access to AWS resources with fine-grained IAM controls
• Implement Lambda triggers for custom authentication flows and user validation
• Manage tokens (ID, Access, Refresh) and secure resource access after sign-in
• Integrate third-party identity providers via OpenID, SAML, and SSO
• Build a complete Cognito-powered authentication system for a real website with code samples

Full Table of Contents

1. 1 Introduction — Amazon Cognito overview, what it is, and advantages of using it
2. 2 More on AWS Cognito — OpenID, SAML, SSO, mobile/web integration, user flows, domains, custom domains, and domain ownership validation
3. 3 Cognito User Pools — Configuration, hosted UI, third-party sign-in, Lambda triggers, user management, email/SMS settings, tokens, resource access, security best practices, and error handling
4. 4 Cognito Identity Pools — Concepts, access control, and developer authenticated identities
5. 5 Cognito Sync — Cross-device data synchronization for authenticated users
6. 6 AWS Cognito Code Samples — Creating user pools, app clients, Lambda login handlers, and API Gateway integration
7. 7 Integrate AWS Cognito with a Website — End-to-end setup, securing your app, testing, per-identity S3 buckets, and IAM role S3 prefix patterns