Application Authentication and Authorization with Amazon Cognito

Amazon Cognito is an identity service for your web and mobile applications. The service allows you to create a user directory or federate with external IdPs such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook to name a few. The internal directory (or external IdP) is used to verify a user’s identity and authorize their access to your application. This service removes the overhead associated with trying to create your own custom identity service for your application.

Amazon Cognito comprises two key components, which can either be used independently or in tandem. We discuss these next.

Amazon Cognito User Pools

Amazon Cognito user pool is a user directory service that offers user creation, management, and authentication services for your applications. End users can sign up for a user account, which results in creating a user profile. You can create an independent user directory hosted in Amazon Cognito and use OIDC-generated...