Request Syntax Request Parameters Response Syntax Response Elements Errors See Also

AdminInitiateAuth

Initiates the authentication flow, as an administrator.

Note

This action might generate an SMS text message. Starting June 1, 2021, US telecom carriers require you to register an origination phone number before you can send SMS messages to US phone numbers. If you use SMS text messages in Amazon Cognito, you must register a phone number with Amazon Pinpoint. Amazon Cognito uses the registered number automatically. Otherwise, Amazon Cognito users who must receive SMS messages might not be able to sign up, activate their accounts, or sign in.

If you have never used SMS text messages with Amazon Cognito or any other Amazon Web Service, Amazon Simple Notification Service might place your account in the SMS sandbox. In sandbox mode , you can send messages only to verified phone numbers. After you test your app while in the sandbox environment, you can move out of the sandbox and into production. For more information, see SMS message settings for Amazon Cognito user pools in the Amazon Cognito Developer Guide.

Calling this action requires developer credentials.

Request Syntax


{
   "AnalyticsMetadata": { 
      "AnalyticsEndpointId": "string"
   },
   "AuthFlow": "string",
   "AuthParameters": { 
      "string" : "string" 
   },
   "ClientId": "string",
   "ClientMetadata": { 
      "string" : "string" 
   },
   "ContextData": { 
      "EncodedData": "string",
      "HttpHeaders": [ 
         { 
            "headerName": "string",
            "headerValue": "string"
         }
      ],
      "IpAddress": "string",
      "ServerName": "string",
      "ServerPath": "string"
   },
   "UserPoolId": "string"
}

Request Parameters

For information about the parameters that are common to all actions, see Common Parameters.

The request accepts the following data in JSON format.

AnalyticsMetadata

The analytics metadata for collecting Amazon Pinpoint metrics for AdminInitiateAuth calls.

Type: AnalyticsMetadataType object

Required: No

AuthFlow

The authentication flow for this call to run. The API action will depend on this value. For example:

REFRESH_TOKEN_AUTH will take in a valid refresh token and return new tokens.
USER_SRP_AUTH will take in USERNAME and SRP_A and return the Secure Remote Password (SRP) protocol variables to be used for next challenge execution.
ADMIN_USER_PASSWORD_AUTH will take in USERNAME and PASSWORD and return the next challenge or tokens.

Valid values include:

USER_SRP_AUTH: Authentication flow for the Secure Remote Password (SRP) protocol.
REFRESH_TOKEN_AUTH/REFRESH_TOKEN: Authentication flow for refreshing the access token and ID token by supplying a valid refresh token.
CUSTOM_AUTH: Custom authentication flow.
ADMIN_NO_SRP_AUTH: Non-SRP authentication flow; you can pass in the USERNAME and PASSWORD directly if the flow is enabled for calling the app client.
ADMIN_USER_PASSWORD_AUTH: Admin-based user password authentication. This replaces the ADMIN_NO_SRP_AUTH authentication flow. In this flow, Amazon Cognito receives the password in the request instead of using the SRP process to verify passwords.

Type: String

Required: Yes

AuthParameters

The authentication parameters. These are inputs corresponding to the AuthFlow that you're invoking. The required values depend on the value of AuthFlow:

For USER_SRP_AUTH: USERNAME (required), SRP_A (required), SECRET_HASH (required if the app client is configured with a client secret), DEVICE_KEY.
For REFRESH_TOKEN_AUTH/REFRESH_TOKEN: REFRESH_TOKEN (required), SECRET_HASH (required if the app client is configured with a client secret), DEVICE_KEY.
For ADMIN_NO_SRP_AUTH: USERNAME (required), SECRET_HASH (if app client is configured with client secret), PASSWORD (required), DEVICE_KEY.
For CUSTOM_AUTH: USERNAME (required), SECRET_HASH (if app client is configured with client secret), DEVICE_KEY. To start the authentication flow with password verification, include ChallengeName: SRP_A and SRP_A: (The SRP_A Value).

Type: String to string map

Required: No

ClientId

The app client ID.

Type: String

Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 128.

Pattern: [\w+]+

Required: Yes

ClientMetadata

A map of custom key-value pairs that you can provide as input for certain custom workflows that this action triggers.

You create custom workflows by assigning Amazon Lambda functions to user pool triggers. When you use the AdminInitiateAuth API action, Amazon Cognito invokes the Lambda functions that are specified for various triggers. The ClientMetadata value is passed as input to the functions for only the following triggers:

Pre signup
Pre authentication
User migration

When Amazon Cognito invokes the functions for these triggers, it passes a JSON payload, which the function receives as input. This payload contains a validationData attribute, which provides the data that you assigned to the ClientMetadata parameter in your AdminInitiateAuth request. In your function code in Amazon Lambda, you can process the validationData value to enhance your workflow for your specific needs.

When you use the AdminInitiateAuth API action, Amazon Cognito also invokes the functions for the following triggers, but it doesn't provide the ClientMetadata value as input:

Post authentication
Custom message
Pre token generation
Create auth challenge
Define auth challenge
Verify auth challenge

For more information, see Customizing user pool Workflows with Lambda Triggers in the Amazon Cognito Developer Guide.

Note

When you use the ClientMetadata parameter, remember that Amazon Cognito won't do the following:

Store the ClientMetadata value. This data is available only to Amazon Lambda triggers that are assigned to a user pool to support custom workflows. If your user pool configuration doesn't include triggers, the ClientMetadata parameter serves no purpose.
Validate the ClientMetadata value.
Encrypt the ClientMetadata value. Don't use Amazon Cognito to provide sensitive information.

Type: String to string map

Required: No

ContextData

Contextual data about your user session, such as the device fingerprint, IP address, or location. Amazon Cognito advanced security evaluates the risk of an authentication event based on the context that your app generates and passes to Amazon Cognito when it makes API requests.

Type: ContextDataType object

Required: No

UserPoolId

The ID of the Amazon Cognito user pool.

Type: String

Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 55.

Pattern: [\w-]+_[0-9a-zA-Z]+

Required: Yes

Response Syntax


{
   "AuthenticationResult": { 
      "AccessToken": "string",
      "ExpiresIn": number,
      "IdToken": "string",
      "NewDeviceMetadata": { 
         "DeviceGroupKey": "string",
         "DeviceKey": "string"
      },
      "RefreshToken": "string",
      "TokenType": "string"
   },
   "ChallengeName": "string",
   "ChallengeParameters": { 
      "string" : "string" 
   },
   "Session": "string"
}

Response Elements

If the action is successful, the service sends back an HTTP 200 response.

The following data is returned in JSON format by the service.

AuthenticationResult

The result of the authentication response. This is only returned if the caller doesn't need to pass another challenge. If the caller does need to pass another challenge before it gets tokens, ChallengeName, ChallengeParameters, and Session are returned.

Type: AuthenticationResultType object

ChallengeName

The name of the challenge that you're responding to with this call. This is returned in the AdminInitiateAuth response if you must pass another challenge.

MFA_SETUP: If MFA is required, users who don't have at least one of the MFA methods set up are presented with an MFA_SETUP challenge. The user must set up at least one MFA type to continue to authenticate.
SELECT_MFA_TYPE: Selects the MFA type. Valid MFA options are SMS_MFA for text SMS MFA, and SOFTWARE_TOKEN_MFA for time-based one-time password (TOTP) software token MFA.
SMS_MFA: Next challenge is to supply an SMS_MFA_CODE, delivered via SMS.
PASSWORD_VERIFIER: Next challenge is to supply PASSWORD_CLAIM_SIGNATURE, PASSWORD_CLAIM_SECRET_BLOCK, and TIMESTAMP after the client-side SRP calculations.
CUSTOM_CHALLENGE: This is returned if your custom authentication flow determines that the user should pass another challenge before tokens are issued.
DEVICE_SRP_AUTH: If device tracking was activated in your user pool and the previous challenges were passed, this challenge is returned so that Amazon Cognito can start tracking this device.
DEVICE_PASSWORD_VERIFIER: Similar to PASSWORD_VERIFIER, but for devices only.
ADMIN_NO_SRP_AUTH: This is returned if you must authenticate with USERNAME and PASSWORD directly. An app client must be enabled to use this flow.
NEW_PASSWORD_REQUIRED: For users who are required to change their passwords after successful first login. Respond to this challenge with NEW_PASSWORD and any required attributes that Amazon Cognito returned in the requiredAttributes parameter. You can also set values for attributes that aren't required by your user pool and that your app client can write. For more information, see AdminRespondToAuthChallenge.

Note
In a NEW_PASSWORD_REQUIRED challenge response, you can't modify a required attribute that already has a value. In AdminRespondToAuthChallenge, set a value for any keys that Amazon Cognito returned in the requiredAttributes parameter, then use the AdminUpdateUserAttributes API operation to modify the value of any additional attributes.
MFA_SETUP: For users who are required to set up an MFA factor before they can sign in. The MFA types activated for the user pool will be listed in the challenge parameters MFA_CAN_SETUP value.

To set up software token MFA, use the session returned here from InitiateAuth as an input to AssociateSoftwareToken, and use the session returned by VerifySoftwareToken as an input to RespondToAuthChallenge with challenge name MFA_SETUP to complete sign-in. To set up SMS MFA, users will need help from an administrator to add a phone number to their account and then call InitiateAuth again to restart sign-in.

Type: String

ChallengeParameters

The challenge parameters. These are returned to you in the AdminInitiateAuth response if you must pass another challenge. The responses in this parameter should be used to compute inputs to the next call (AdminRespondToAuthChallenge).

All challenges require USERNAME and SECRET_HASH (if applicable).

The value of the USER_ID_FOR_SRP attribute is the user's actual username, not an alias (such as email address or phone number), even if you specified an alias in your call to AdminInitiateAuth. This happens because, in the AdminRespondToAuthChallenge API ChallengeResponses, the USERNAME attribute can't be an alias.

Type: String to string map

Session

The session that should be passed both ways in challenge-response calls to the service. If AdminInitiateAuth or AdminRespondToAuthChallenge API call determines that the caller must pass another challenge, they return a session with other challenge parameters. This session should be passed as it is to the next AdminRespondToAuthChallenge API call.

Type: String

Length Constraints: Minimum length of 20. Maximum length of 2048.

Errors

For information about the errors that are common to all actions, see Common Errors.

InternalErrorException

This exception is thrown when Amazon Cognito encounters an internal error.

HTTP Status Code: 500

InvalidLambdaResponseException

This exception is thrown when Amazon Cognito encounters an invalid Amazon Lambda response.

HTTP Status Code: 400

InvalidParameterException

This exception is thrown when the Amazon Cognito service encounters an invalid parameter.

HTTP Status Code: 400

InvalidSmsRoleAccessPolicyException

This exception is returned when the role provided for SMS configuration doesn't have permission to publish using Amazon SNS.

HTTP Status Code: 400

InvalidSmsRoleTrustRelationshipException

This exception is thrown when the trust relationship is not valid for the role provided for SMS configuration. This can happen if you don't trust cognito-idp.amazonaws.com or the external ID provided in the role does not match what is provided in the SMS configuration for the user pool.

HTTP Status Code: 400

InvalidUserPoolConfigurationException

This exception is thrown when the user pool configuration is not valid.

HTTP Status Code: 400

MFAMethodNotFoundException

This exception is thrown when Amazon Cognito can't find a multi-factor authentication (MFA) method.

HTTP Status Code: 400

NotAuthorizedException

This exception is thrown when a user isn't authorized.

HTTP Status Code: 400

PasswordResetRequiredException

This exception is thrown when a password reset is required.

HTTP Status Code: 400

ResourceNotFoundException

This exception is thrown when the Amazon Cognito service can't find the requested resource.

HTTP Status Code: 400

TooManyRequestsException

This exception is thrown when the user has made too many requests for a given operation.

HTTP Status Code: 400

UnexpectedLambdaException

This exception is thrown when Amazon Cognito encounters an unexpected exception with Amazon Lambda.

HTTP Status Code: 400

UserLambdaValidationException

This exception is thrown when the Amazon Cognito service encounters a user validation exception with the Amazon Lambda service.

HTTP Status Code: 400

UserNotConfirmedException

This exception is thrown when a user isn't confirmed successfully.

HTTP Status Code: 400

UserNotFoundException

This exception is thrown when a user isn't found.

HTTP Status Code: 400