Configuring an external authorization server

To use Amazon Cognito as the authorization server

1. Create a new Amazon Cognito user pool. For more information about user pools, see Features of Amazon Cognito in the Amazon Cognito Developer Guide.

   Use the create-user-pool command, and specify a pool name and the Region in which to create it.

   In this example, we name the pool dcv-session-manager-client-app and we create it in us-east-1.

   $ aws cognito-idp create-user-pool --pool-name dcv-session-manager-client-app --region us-east-1

   Example output

   {
       "UserPoolClient": {
           "UserPoolId": "us-east-1_QLEXAMPLE",
           "ClientName": "dcv-session-manager-client-app",
           "ClientId": "15hhd8jij74hf32f24uEXAMPLE",
           "LastModifiedDate": 1602510048.054,
           "CreationDate": 1602510048.054,
           "RefreshTokenValidity": 30,
           "AllowedOAuthFlowsUserPoolClient": false
       }
   }

   Make a note of the userPoolId, you'll need it in the next step.

2. Create a new domain for your user pool. Use the create-user-pool-domain command, and specify a domain name and the userPoolId of the user pool that you created in the previous step.

   In this example, the domain name is mydomain-544fa30f-c0e5-4a02-8d2a-a3761EXAMPLE and we create it in us-east-1.

   $ aws cognito-idp create-user-pool-domain --domain mydomain-544fa30f-c0e5-4a02-8d2a-a3761EXAMPLE --user-pool-id us-east-1_QLEXAMPLE --region us-east-1

   Example output

   {
       "DomainDescription": {
           "UserPoolId": "us-east-1_QLEXAMPLE",
           "AWSAccountId": "123456789012",
           "Domain": "mydomain-544fa30f-c0e5-4a02-8d2a-a3761EXAMPLE",
           "S3Bucket": "aws-cognito-prod-pdx-assets",
           "CloudFrontDistribution": "dpp0gtexample.cloudfront.net",
           "Version": "20201012133715",
           "Status": "ACTIVE",
           "CustomDomainConfig": {}
       }
   }
   

   The format of the user pool domain is as follows: https://domain_name.auth.region.amazoncognito.com. In this example, the user pool domain is https://mydomain-544fa30f-c0e5-4a02-8d2a-a3761EXAMPLE.auth.us-east-1.amazoncognito.com.

3. Create a user pool client. Use the create-user-pool-client command and specify the userPoolId of the user pool that you created, a name for the client, and the Region in which to create it. Also, include the --generate-secret option to specify that you want to generate a secret for the user pool client being created.

   In this case, the client name is dcv-session-manager-client-app and we create it in the us-east-1 Region.

   $ aws cognito-idp create-user-pool-client --user-pool-id us-east-1_QLEXAMPLE --client-name dcv-session-manager-client-app --generate-secret --region us-east-1

   Example output

   {
       "UserPoolClient": {
           "UserPoolId": "us-east-1_QLEXAMPLE",
           "ClientName": "dcv-session-manager-client-app",
           "ClientId": "2l9273hp6k2ut5cugg9EXAMPLE",
           "ClientSecret": "1vp5e8nec7cbf4m9me55mbmht91u61hlh0a78rq1qki1lEXAMPLE",
           "LastModifiedDate": 1602510291.498,
           "CreationDate": 1602510291.498,
           "RefreshTokenValidity": 30,
           "AllowedOAuthFlowsUserPoolClient": false
       }
   }
   

   Note

   Make a note of the ClientId and ClientSecret. You'll need to provide this information to the developers for when they request access tokens for the API requests.

4. Create a new OAuth2.0 resource server for the user pool. A resource server is a server for access-protected resources. It handles authenticated requests for access tokens.

   Use the create-resource-server command and specify the userPoolId of the user pool, a unique identifier and name for the resource server, the scope, and the Region in which to create it.

   In this example, we use dcv-session-manager as the identifier and the name, and we use sm_scope as the scope name and description.

   $ aws cognito-idp create-resource-server --user-pool-id us-east-1_QLEXAMPLE --identifier dcv-session-manager --name dcv-session-manager --scopes ScopeName=sm_scope,ScopeDescription=sm_scope --region us-east-1

   Example output

   {
       "ResourceServer": {
           "UserPoolId": "us-east-1_QLEXAMPLE",
           "Identifier": "dcv-session-manager",
           "Name": "dcv-session-manager",
           "Scopes": [
           {
               "ScopeName": "sm_scope",
               "ScopeDescription": "sm_scope"
           }]
       }
   }

5. Update the user pool client.

   Use the update-user-pool-client command. Specify the userPoolId of the user pool, the ClientId of the user pool client, and the Region. For --allowed-o-auth-flows, specify client_credentials to indicate that the client should get access tokens from the token endpoint by using a combination of a client ID and a client secret. For --allowed-o-auth-scopes, specify the resource server identifier and the scope name as follows: resource_server_identifier/scope_name. Include the --allowed-o-auth-flows-user-pool-client to indicate that the client is allowed to follow the OAuth protocol when interacting with Cognito user pools.

   $ aws cognito-idp update-user-pool-client --user-pool-id us-east-1_QLEXAMPLE --client-id 2l9273hp6k2ut5cugg9EXAMPLE --allowed-o-auth-flows client_credentials --allowed-o-auth-scopes dcv-session-manager/sm_scope --allowed-o-auth-flows-user-pool-client --region us-east-1

   Example output

   {
       "UserPoolClient": {
           "UserPoolId": "us-east-1_QLEXAMPLE",
           "ClientName": "dcv-session-manager-client-app",
           "ClientId": "2l9273hp6k2ut5cugg9EXAMPLE",
           "ClientSecret": "1vp5e8nec7cbf4m9me55mbmht91u61hlh0a78rq1qki1lEXAMPLE",
           "LastModifiedDate": 1602512103.099,
           "CreationDate": 1602510291.498,
           "RefreshTokenValidity": 30,
           "AllowedOAuthFlows": [
               "client_credentials"
           ],
           "AllowedOAuthScopes": [
               "dcv-session-manager/sm_scope"
           ],
           "AllowedOAuthFlowsUserPoolClient": true
       }
   }

   Note

   The user pool is now ready to provide and authenticate access tokens. In this example, the URL for the authorization server is https://cognito-idp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/us-east-1_QLEXAMPLE/.well-known/jwks.json.

6. Test the configuration.

   $ curl -H "Authorization: Basic `echo -n 2l9273hp6k2ut5cugg9EXAMPLE:1vp5e8nec7cbf4m9me55mbmht91u61hlh0a78rq1qki1lEXAMPLE | base64`" -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" -X POST "https://mydomain-544fa30f-c0e5-4a02-8d2a-a3761EXAMPLE.auth.us-east-1.amazoncognito.com/oauth2/token?grant_type=client_credentials&scope=dcv-session-manager/sm_scope"

   Example output

   {
   "access_token":"eyJraWQiOiJGQ0VaRFpJUUptT3NSaW41MmtqaDdEbTZYb0RnSTQ5b2VUT0cxUUI1Q2VJPSIsImFsZyI6IlJTMjU2In0.eyJzdWIiOiIybDkyNzNocDZrMnV0NWN1Z2c5dWg4ZGx0cCIsInRva2VuX3VzZSI6ImFjY2VzcyIsInNjb3BlIjoiZGN2LXNlc3Npb24tbWFuYWdlclwvcGVybWlzc2lvbnMiLCJhdXRoX3RpbWUiOjE2MDI1MTMyODMsImlzcyI6Imh0dHBzOlwvXC9jb2duaXRvLWlkcC51cy13ZXN0LTIuYW1hem9uYXdzLmNvbVwvdXMtd2VzdC0yX1FMZTA3SU9GViIsImV4cCI6MTYwMjUxNjg4MywiaWF0IjoxNjAyNTEzMjgzLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjoyLCJqdGkiOiIyMDk2YTg4NS04YWQ0LTRmYjgtYjI2Mi1hMmNkNDk0OGZjNjYiLCJjbGllbnRfaWQiOiIybDkyNzNocDZrMnV0NWN1Z2c5dWg4ZGx0cCJ9.ZLZpS4CiiLq1X_VSm911hNT4g8A0FKZXScVJyyV0ijcyOfUOBcpgSMGqJagLYORFuYwLS5c7g4eO04wIwnw21ABGIDcOMElDPCJkrzjfLEPS_eyK3dNmlXDEvdS-Zkfi0HIDsd6audjTXKzHlZGScr6ROdZtId5dThkpEZiSx0YwiiWe9crAlqoazlDcCsUJHIXDtgKW64pSj3-uQQGg1Jv_tyVjhrA4JbD0k67WS2V9NW-uZ7t4zwwaUmOi3KzpBMi54fpVgPaewiVlUm_aS4LUFcWT6hVJjiZF7om7984qb2gOa14iZxpXPBJTZX_gtG9EtvnS9uW0QygTJRNgsw",
   "expires_in":3600,
   "token_type":"Bearer"
   }
   

7. Register the external authorization server for use with the broker by using the register-auth-server command.

   $ sudo -u root dcv-session-manager-broker register-auth-server --url  https://cognito-idp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/us-east-1_QLEXAMPLE/.well-known/jwks.json