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Using the Amazon Cognito prefix domain for managed login - Amazon Cognito
PrerequisitesConfigure an Amazon Cognito domain prefixVerify your sign-in page

Using the Amazon Cognito prefix domain for managed login

The default experience for managed login is hosted on a domain that AWS owns. This approach has a low barrier to entry—choose a prefix name and it's active—but doesn't have the trust-inspiring features of a custom domain. There isn't a cost difference between the Amazon Cognito domain option and the custom domain option. The only difference is the domain in the web address that you direct your users to. For cases of third-party IdP redirects and client-credentials flows, the prefix domain has little visible effect. A custom domain is better for cases where your users sign in with managed login and would interact with a authentication domain that doesn't match the application domain.

The prefix domain has a prefix of your choosing and is a subdomain of the regional amazoncognito.com authentication domain. The following is an example:

https://cognitoexample.auth.ap-south-1.amazoncognito.com

All prefix domains follow this format: prefix.auth.AWS Region code.amazoncognito.com. Custom domain user pools can host the managed login or hosted UI pages on any domain that you own.

Note

To augment the security of your Amazon Cognito applications, the parent domains of user pool endpoints are registered in the Public Suffix List (PSL). The PSL helps your users' web browsers establish a consistent understanding of your user pool endpoints and the cookies they set.

User pool parent domains take the following formats.


auth.Region.amazoncognito.com
auth-fips.Region.amazoncognito.com

The auth-fips domain is a Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-3 compliant endpoint. It provides encryption in transit with FIPS-validated cryptographic modules. Direct your users to this endpoint when your application must meet FIPS compliance requirements. FIPS endpoints for Amazon Cognito managed login are available in a subset of AWS Regions in the US and are not offered in all Regions. For more information about FIPS and the Regions where Amazon Cognito provides FIPS endpoints, see FIPS 140-3.

To add an app client and a user pool domain with the AWS Management Console, see Creating an app client.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, you need:

Configure an Amazon Cognito domain prefix

You can use either the AWS Management Console or the AWS CLI or API to configure a user pool domain.

Amazon Cognito console
Configure a domain

  1. Navigate to the Domain menu under Branding.

  2. Next to Domain, choose Actions and select Create Cognito domain. If you have already configured a user pool prefix domain, choose Delete Cognito domain before creating your new custom domain.

  3. Enter an available domain prefix to use with a Amazon Cognito domain. For information on setting up a Custom domain, see Using your own domain for managed login.

  4. Choose a Branding version. Your branding version applies to all user-interactive pages at that domain. Your user pool can host either managed login or hosted UI branding for all app clients.

    Note

    You can have a custom domain and a prefix domain, but Amazon Cognito only serves the /.well-known/openid-configuration endpoint for the custom domain.

  5. Choose Create.

CLI/API

Use the following commands to create a domain prefix and assign it to your user pool.

To configure a user pool domain

  • AWS CLI: aws cognito-idp create-user-pool-domain

    Example: aws cognito-idp create-user-pool-domain --user-pool-id <user_pool_id> --domain <domain_name> --managed-login-version 2

  • User pools API operation: CreateUserPoolDomain

To get information about a domain

  • AWS CLI: aws cognito-idp describe-user-pool-domain

    Example: aws cognito-idp describe-user-pool-domain --domain <domain_name>

  • User pools API operation: DescribeUserPoolDomain

To delete a domain

  • AWS CLI: aws cognito-idp delete-user-pool-domain

    Example: aws cognito-idp delete-user-pool-domain --domain <domain_name>

  • User pools API operation: DeleteUserPoolDomain

Verify your sign-in page

  • Verify that the sign-in page is available from your Amazon Cognito hosted domain.

    
https://<your_domain>/login?response_type=code&client_id=<your_app_client_id>&redirect_uri=<your_callback_url>

Your domain is shown on the Domain name page of the Amazon Cognito console. Your app client ID and callback URL are shown on the App client settings page.