WHAT IS AWS COGNITO?
Amazon Cognito is a service provided by AWS that enables you to add user sign-up, sign-in, and access control to your web and mobile apps quickly and securely.
It provides:
- User management and authentication out of the box.
- Integration with social identity providers (like Google, Facebook, Apple) and enterprise identity providers via SAML/OIDC.
- Token-based authentication using industry standards like OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, and SAML 2.0.
HOW DOES AWS COGNITO WORK?
Amazon Cognito has two main components:
1. User Pools (Authentication)
- A user directory to manage user accounts.
- Supports sign-up, sign-in, and user profile management.
- Issues JWT tokens (ID, access, refresh) after successful authentication.
- Integrates with Lambda triggers for custom authentication flows (MFA, validations, etc).
Flow Example:
- User signs up or logs in → Cognito verifies credentials.
- If valid → Cognito returns ID and access tokens.
- Tokens are used in your frontend/backend to authenticate and authorize requests.
2. Identity Pools (Authorization)
- Provides temporary AWS credentials to authenticated users to access AWS services (like S3, DynamoDB).
- Supports authenticated and unauthenticated (guest) users.
- Works in combination with Cognito User Pool or other IdPs.
Flow Example:
- User is authenticated via a User Pool or a social IdP.
- Identity Pool exchanges token for AWS credentials via STS.
- These credentials allow limited access to AWS resources securely.
WHY TO USE AWS COGNITO?
| Feature | Benefit |
| Scalable user management | Handles millions of users with minimal effort. |
| Standards-based authentication | Uses OAuth 2.0, OIDC, and SAML for security. |
| Social & enterprise login support | Supports Facebook, Google, Apple, SAML, etc. |
| Token-based access | Secure access via short-lived JWTs. |
| Custom workflows | Lambda triggers for custom logic (MFA, email verification, etc). |
| AWS service integration | Identity Pools allow secure, temporary AWS access. |
| Compliance | Cognito is HIPAA, PCI DSS, and GDPR compliant. |
PRE-REQUISITES:
- Functional and active account on aws.
Step 1: Search Cognito in the aws management console and select the region of your choice, then click on get started for free in less than 5minutes.
Step 2: Create Aws Cogntio User Pool following the steps and choosing as per your requirement
Choose Email, phone number or Username as sign-in identifiers as per your requirement. For now we have chosen all three of them.
Add Required attributes for sign-up. For-example: Email
Also add return url if you want that after login where the user gets redirected. It’s optional.
On successful creation you can see this alert
-> Stay tuned with us to integrate it with your laravel application
https://200oksolutions.com/blog/aws-cognito-integration-with-laravel-application/
