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Amazon Cognito User Pool Development and Testing with SMS Redirected to Email

Overview

You can use a Custom SMS sender Lambda trigger to evaluate the SMS capabilities of Amazon Cognito user pool. You can set up a test environment that, instead of sending SMS messages, sends messages to an email address that you choose.

To set up SMS messages for the first time in an Amazon Cognito user pool, you must complete additional setup with Amazon SNS and Amazon PinPoint. Initially, you can’t send SMS messages to US phone numbers. This requires that you purchase an origination identity through Amazon PinPoint. You also can’t initially send SMS messages to any phone numbers that you haven’t verified with Amazon SNS. To send SMS messages to unverified phone numbers, you must submit a support request to exit the SMS sandbox. You also have a low initial spending limit for SMS messages until you create a support case to increase it. Until you have met these prerequisites, your user pool is not production-ready for the SMS message capabilities of Amazon Cognito.

You can build a test environment that makes it possible to evaluate the full SMS message capabilities of Amazon Cognito user pools when you deploy this solution. With a custom SMS sender Lambda trigger, you can send SMS messages using your own custom logic. A user pool might invoke the Custom SMS sender Lambda trigger to send SMS messages as part of the following actions:

  • A user signs up in your user pool with a phone number.
  • A user with SMS multi-factor authentication (MFA) signs in.
  • A user requests to reset a lost password.
  • A user requests a replacement code to reset their password.
  • A user updates phone number attribute and Amazon Cognito sends a code to verify the attribute.
  • A user creates a phone number attribute and Amazon Cognito sends a code to verify the attribute.
  • Administrator creates a new user in your user pool and Amazon Cognito sends a temporary password.

This solution makes it possible to evaluate the messaging capabilities of your user pool with a CustomSMSSender Lambda trigger. Instead of sending SMS messages to users' phone numbers, the Lambda function routes your SMS messages to an Amazon SNS topic, which can deliver the message to you through email. The SNS topic that you configure sends SMS messages to its email subscribers. Amazon Cognito doesn’t send any messages to the phone number that your user provides in this solution. When you deploy this solution, you redirect all SMS messages from your user pool to one or more email addresses, regardless of any email address or phone number attributes that you configure in the Amazon Cognito user profile.

You can deploy this solution with AWS CloudFormation templates. We provide two templates in this repository:

  1. CustomSMSSenderWithNewUserPool
  2. CustomSMSSenderWithExistingUserPool

Only use the Amazon Cognito environment that this solution creates for development and testing of an app. After you complete testing and are ready to use your user pool in production, remove the Custom SMS Sender Lambda trigger assignment. You must use the UpdateUserPool operation in the AWS API or CLI to remove a Custom SMS Sender Lambda trigger.

Topics

Prerequisites

If you haven't already done so you must first:

Creating stacks

Use the AWS CloudFormation console to run the templates. Select the Create stack button in the upper right corner of the console, then select Template is ready, select Upload a template file and select Choose file to find your local fork of this repository and choose the template you want to run.

Create stack

The templates

This sample contains the following CloudFormation templates:

  • CustomSMSSenderWithExistingUserPool.json
  • CustomSMSSenderWithExistingUserPool.yaml
  • CustomSMSSenderWithNewUserPool.json
  • CustomSMSSenderWithNewUserPool.yaml

Solution architecture

The solution architecture discussed in this post is presented below: Solution architecture

The flow of this process is as follows:

  1. You make an API request in your user pool that would result in an SMS message being delivered. Common actions that generate an SMS message are:
    1. Sign up and verify a phone number.
    2. Sign in with SMS MFA enabled.
    3. Reset a password.
  2. The user pool uses a KMS key to encrypt the one-time-use code.
  3. The user pool invokes your Custom SMS sender Lambda trigger.
  4. The Lambda function decrypts the code with the same AWS KMS key that encrypted the code.
  5. The Lambda function generates a message that includes the code. It publishes the message to an Amazon SNS topic.
  6. The SNS topic sends the message to the email address you subscribed.
  7. You provide the code in the API response that completes the request.

Resources created by the templates

Resources created by the CloudFormation templates

  • Two AWS Lambda functions

    • A Custom SMS Sender trigger Lambda function
    • A helper Lambda function that can:
      • Add and remove the AWS Encryption SDK for the Custom SMS Sender trigger Lambda function.
      • Add and remove the Custom SMS Sender Lambda trigger for a user pool that you provide (Deploy with an existing user pool solution only).

  • IAM roles

    • A Lambda function execution role for the Custom SMS Sender trigger Lambda function
    • A Lambda function execution role for the helper Lambda function

  • An AWS KMS key used by the Lambda function to decrypt the code encrypted by Cognito user pool.

  • An Amazon SNS topic with an email subscriber. The subscriber is the email address that you provided to the CloudFormation template. You can choose to encrypt your SNS topic when you deploy the CloudFormation stack with another KMS key. Note that using a KMS key incurs additional pricing. For more information, see AWS Key Management Service pricing.

Additional resources created by the new user pool template

  • An Amazon Cognito user pool
  • An Amazon Cognito user pool app client
  • An IAM role with sns:Publish permission that Amazon Cognito can use to meet SMS setup requirements

Resource IDs

Resource logical ID Type Required Created with Templates
CognitoCustomSMSSenderTestingUserPool AWS::Cognito::UserPool Required CustomSMSSenderWithNewUserPool
CognitoCustomSMSSenderTestingUserPoolAppClient AWS::Cognito::UserPoolClient Required CustomSMSSenderWithNewUserPool
CognitoCustomSMSSenderTestingUserPoolSMSRole AWS::IAM::Role Required CustomSMSSenderWithNewUserPool
CognitoCustomSMSSenderTestingLambdaInvocationPermission AWS::Lambda::Permission Required Both
CognitoCustomSMSSenderTestingLambda AWS::Lambda::Function Required Both
CognitoCustomSMSSenderTestingLambdaRole AWS::IAM::Role Required Both
CognitoCustomSMSSenderTestingLambdaLogGroup AWS::Logs::LogGroup Required Both
CognitoCustomSMSSenderTestingLambdaHelper AWS::Lambda::Function Required Both
CognitoCustomSMSSenderTestingLambdaHelperRole AWS::IAM::Role Required Both
CognitoCustomSMSSenderTestingLambdaHelperLogGroup AWS::Logs::LogGroup Required Both
CognitoCustomSMSSenderTestingLambdaHelperResources Custom::CognitoCustomSMSSenderHelperResources Required Both
CognitoCustomSMSSenderTestingLambdaSNSTopic AWS::SNS::Topic Required Both
CognitoCustomSMSSenderTestingKMSKey AWS::KMS::Key Required Both
CognitoCustomSMSSenderTestingSNSTopicKMSKey AWS::KMS::Key Optional Both
CognitoCustomSMSSenderTestingLambdaPolicyOpt(In/Out)SNSEncryption AWS::IAM::Policy Conditional Both

Deploy the solution

Deploy with a new user pool

  1. Launch one of the following two stacks:

    1. CustomSMSSenderWithNewUserPool.json
    2. CustomSMSSenderWithNewUserPool.yaml

  2. Provide the following parameters:

    1. A name for the stack that’s fewer than 48 characters long since we attached the stack name to the Lambda function name that has a 64-character limit.
    2. A valid email address that you own. All SMS messages from your user pool will be simulated in the form of emails to this address.
    3. A Boolean value for OptInSNSTopicEncryptionInput. Choose true if you want to create an additional KMS key and use it to encrypt the SNS topic.

  3. Choose Next, and then choose Next again. On the Review page, select the check box that authorizes CloudFormation to create AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) resources for the stack. CF acknowledgment

  4. Choose Create stack to deploy the stack. The deployment will take several minutes. When the status says CREATE_COMPLETE, the deployment is complete.

Deploy with an existing user pool

  1. Choose an existing user pool to modify. Your user pool must be in the same AWS Region where you deploy the stack. It must also have an IAM role configured for SMS messages, and an app client.
  2. Launch one of the following two stacks:
    1. CustomSMSSenderWithExistingUserPool.json
    2. CustomSMSSenderWithExistingUserPool.yaml
  3. Provide the following parameters:
    1. A name for the stack that’s fewer than 48 characters long since we attached the stack name to the Lambda function name that has a 64-character limit.
    2. A valid email address that you own. All SMS messages from your user pool will be simulated in the form of emails to this address.
    3. The ID of your existing user pool. The user pool must be in the same AWS Region as your stack.
    4. The ARN of the IAM role that your existing user pool uses for SMS messages. You can find the IAM role ARN in the Messaging tab for your user pool in the Amazon Cognito console. Messaging console
    5. A Boolean value for OptInSNSTopicEncryptionInput. Choose true if you want to create an additional KMS key and use it to encrypt the SNS topic.
  4. Choose Next, and then choose Next again. On the Review page, select the check box that authorizes CloudFormation to create AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) resources for the stack. CF_acknowledgment
  5. Choose Create stack to deploy the stack. The deployment will take several minutes. When the status says CREATE_COMPLETE, the deployment is complete.

Evaluate the solution

  1. You will have received a Confirm subscription message from [email protected] at the email address that you provided to the CloudFormation stack. Select the link in the email to confirm your subscription to the Amazon SNS topic.
  2. Review the SNS topic that you subscribed, named CognitoCustomSMSSenderTestingLambdaSNSTopic-your stack name and verify that your email address is Confirmed.
  3. Review the User pool properties tab of your user pool. Verify that you have a Custom SMS Sender Lambda trigger and its attached Lambda function with the name CogSMSTesting-your stack name.
  4. Review the App integration tab of your user pool. Copy the Client ID of the app client under App clients and analytics.
  5. Install the AWS CLI and run the following command to sign up a new user and send an “SMS message”: aws cognito-idp sign-up --client-id [app ID from the previous step] --username [+12065551212] —password [password]
  6. Check the SNS topic subscriber’s email inbox for a message with the subject “Cognito Lambda-based SMS messaging testing stack.”

Troubleshooting

  1. I didn’t receive a code at the email address that I subscribed to the SNS topic.

    Most often, an SNS topic doesn’t deliver an email message because the subscriber hasn’t confirmed their subscription to the topic. Review your resource configuration as follows:

    1. Locate your Custom SMS Sender testing stack in the AWS Cloudformation console. Review the CognitoCustomSMSSenderTestingSNSTopicSubscriber email address in the Parameters tab.
    2. Check your email inbox for a confirmation email for the SNS topic. If you have not already done so, click the link in the confirmation email to confirm the subscription. If you subscribed the SNS topic after API requests and you could not receive the code, you might need to Delete the subscription and Create subscription again in the Amazon SNS console.
    3. Confirm that Amazon Cognito invoked your custom SMS sender function when you made the API request to evaluate the solution. Go to the AWS Cloudformation console and find your stack. Review the Resources tab and choose the Physical ID link to view your CognitoCustomSMSSenderTestingLambda Lambda function. Choose Monitor, then View logs in CloudWatch. From the CloudWatch Logs console, check that logs exist and that the function has not logged errors.
    4. The stack creates an additional Lambda function with the resource name CognitoCustomSMSSenderTestingLambdaHelper. It imports the AWS Encryption SDK for your custom SMS sender function when the custom resource is created. Review CloudWatch logs for the helper function.

    Existing user pool configurations vary. Confirm that you have configured your existing user pool to send SMS messages for the events that you want to test.

    If you don’t receive a code from the SignUp API, review the Sign-up experience tab of your user pool. Edit Attribute verification and user account confirmation to set Allow Cognito to automatically send messages to verify and confirm to Enabled, and Attributes to verify to include Send SMS message. Confirm that you provided a phone number for the new user in your testing. If you don’t receive an MFA code, confirm your configuration in the Sign-in experience tab. Edit Multi-factor authentication to set MFA enforcement to Require MFA, and MFA methods to include SMS message. If you don’t receive a code from the ForgotPassword API, confirm your configuration in the Sign-in experience tab. Edit User account recovery to set Self-service account recovery to Enabled, and include SMS as a Recovery message delivery method.

  2. The CognitoCustomSMSSenderTestingLambdaLayerHelperResources resource gets stuck when I create, update, or delete resources.

    The CloudFormation template uses the AWS Lambda-backed custom resources strategy to make the AWS Encryption SDK available to your custom SMS sender Lambda function. The template creates a helper Lambda-backed custom resource that’s named CognitoCustomSMSSenderTestingLambdaHelperResources. A helper Lambda function adds AWS Encryption SDK support to the custom SMS sender Lambda function. The helper Lambda function also assigns the custom SMS sender function as a Lambda trigger when you use an existing user pool with this solution. If the helper function doesn’t respond to a request from the custom resource, the custom resource will be stuck until it times out after one hour. The most common reason for this error is that you have introduced a syntax error to the helper function. Review the CloudWatch logs of the helper Lambda function for errors. If you find that the function produced a syntax error, delete the stack after it times out. See What are some best practices for implementing AWS Lambda-backed custom resources with AWS CloudFormation for more information about custom resources.

Notes and security considerations

  1. Don’t use this solution in a production environment.
  2. The codes that this solution generates are private and can be used to gain access to your app. All SMS messages are sent to a single email address. Secure access to your SNS topic accordingly.
  3. You create all of the resources that this solution uses, including the CloudWatch log groups, in one stack. Make a copy of any Lambda function logs that you want to preserve before you delete a stack from this template.
  4. When your CloudFormation stack creates custom resources, the helper function activates and adds the AWS Encryption SDK to the custom SMS sender function as a Lambda layer. When you delete the stack, you also remove the AWS Encryption SDK layer. You can’t edit your custom SMS sender Lambda function from the Amazon Cognito console.
  5. If you’re using an existing user pool, the Lambda helper function assigns a custom SMS sender trigger to the user pool. If you delete the stack, the trigger is deleted from your user pool and your user pool returns to its original configuration.
  6. The existing user pool stack replaces any existing Custom SMS Sender trigger assignment in your user pool.
  7. If you modify the custom resource in the template in a way that changes the Physical ID, the stack creates a new custom resource that replaces the original. Consequently, the Lambda layer that contains the AWS Encryption SDK and the user pool custom SMS sender assignment are removed when you delete the original custom resource. To avoid deletion of the old resource, attach a Retain UpdateReplacePolicy attribute to the custom resource.

Cleanup

When you're done testing the solution, delete the CloudFormation stack using the console. Navigate to CloudFormation > Stacks > Choose the stack you deployed > Select Delete.

Security

See CONTRIBUTING for more information.

License

This library is licensed under the MIT-0 License. See the LICENSE file.