[ aws . cognito-idp ]

admin-initiate-auth

Description

Starts sign-in for applications with a server-side component, for example a traditional web application. This operation specifies the authentication flow that you’d like to begin. The authentication flow that you specify must be supported in your app client configuration. For more information about authentication flows, see Authentication flows .

Note

This action might generate an SMS text message. Starting June 1, 2021, US telecom carriers require you to register an origination phone number before you can send SMS messages to US phone numbers. If you use SMS text messages in Amazon Cognito, you must register a phone number with Amazon Pinpoint . Amazon Cognito uses the registered number automatically. Otherwise, Amazon Cognito users who must receive SMS messages might not be able to sign up, activate their accounts, or sign in.

If you have never used SMS text messages with Amazon Cognito or any other Amazon Web Services service, Amazon Simple Notification Service might place your account in the SMS sandbox. In * sandbox mode * , you can send messages only to verified phone numbers. After you test your app while in the sandbox environment, you can move out of the sandbox and into production. For more information, see SMS message settings for Amazon Cognito user pools in the Amazon Cognito Developer Guide .

Note

Amazon Cognito evaluates Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies in requests for this API operation. For this operation, you must use IAM credentials to authorize requests, and you must grant yourself the corresponding IAM permission in a policy.

Learn more

• Signing Amazon Web Services API Requests
• Using the Amazon Cognito user pools API and user pool endpoints

See also: AWS API Documentation

Synopsis

  admin-initiate-auth
--user-pool-id <value>
--client-id <value>
--auth-flow <value>
[--auth-parameters <value>]
[--client-metadata <value>]
[--analytics-metadata <value>]
[--context-data <value>]
[--session <value>]
[--cli-input-json | --cli-input-yaml]
[--generate-cli-skeleton <value>]
[--debug]
[--endpoint-url <value>]
[--no-verify-ssl]
[--no-paginate]
[--output <value>]
[--query <value>]
[--profile <value>]
[--region <value>]
[--version <value>]
[--color <value>]
[--no-sign-request]
[--ca-bundle <value>]
[--cli-read-timeout <value>]
[--cli-connect-timeout <value>]
[--cli-binary-format <value>]
[--no-cli-pager]
[--cli-auto-prompt]
[--no-cli-auto-prompt]

Options

--user-pool-id (string)

The ID of the user pool where the user wants to sign in.

--client-id (string)

The ID of the app client where the user wants to sign in.

--auth-flow (string)

The authentication flow that you want to initiate. Each AuthFlow has linked AuthParameters that you must submit. The following are some example flows and their parameters.

• USER_AUTH : Request a preferred authentication type or review available authentication types. From the offered authentication types, select one in a challenge response and then authenticate with that method in an additional challenge response.
• REFRESH_TOKEN_AUTH : Receive new ID and access tokens when you pass a REFRESH_TOKEN parameter with a valid refresh token as the value.
• USER_SRP_AUTH : Receive secure remote password (SRP) variables for the next challenge, PASSWORD_VERIFIER , when you pass USERNAME and SRP_A parameters..
• ADMIN_USER_PASSWORD_AUTH : Receive new tokens or the next challenge, for example SOFTWARE_TOKEN_MFA , when you pass USERNAME and PASSWORD parameters.

All flows

USER_AUTH

The entry point for sign-in with passwords, one-time passwords, and WebAuthN authenticators.

USER_SRP_AUTH

Username-password authentication with the Secure Remote Password (SRP) protocol. For more information, see Use SRP password verification in custom authentication flow .

REFRESH_TOKEN_AUTH and REFRESH_TOKEN

Provide a valid refresh token and receive new ID and access tokens. For more information, see Using the refresh token .

CUSTOM_AUTH

Custom authentication with Lambda triggers. For more information, see Custom authentication challenge Lambda triggers .

ADMIN_USER_PASSWORD_AUTH

Username-password authentication with the password sent directly in the request. For more information, see Admin authentication flow .

USER_PASSWORD_AUTH is a flow type of InitiateAuth and isn’t valid for AdminInitiateAuth.

Possible values:

• USER_SRP_AUTH
• REFRESH_TOKEN_AUTH
• REFRESH_TOKEN
• CUSTOM_AUTH
• ADMIN_NO_SRP_AUTH
• USER_PASSWORD_AUTH
• ADMIN_USER_PASSWORD_AUTH
• USER_AUTH

--auth-parameters (map)

The authentication parameters. These are inputs corresponding to the AuthFlow that you’re invoking. The required values depend on the value of AuthFlow :

• For USER_AUTH : USERNAME (required), PREFERRED_CHALLENGE . If you don’t provide a value for PREFERRED_CHALLENGE , Amazon Cognito responds with the AvailableChallenges parameter that specifies the available sign-in methods.
• For USER_SRP_AUTH : USERNAME (required), SRP_A (required), SECRET_HASH (required if the app client is configured with a client secret), DEVICE_KEY .
• For ADMIN_USER_PASSWORD_AUTH : USERNAME (required), PASSWORD (required), SECRET_HASH (required if the app client is configured with a client secret), DEVICE_KEY .
• For REFRESH_TOKEN_AUTH/REFRESH_TOKEN : REFRESH_TOKEN (required), SECRET_HASH (required if the app client is configured with a client secret), DEVICE_KEY .
• For CUSTOM_AUTH : USERNAME (required), SECRET_HASH (if app client is configured with client secret), DEVICE_KEY . To start the authentication flow with password verification, include ChallengeName: SRP_A and SRP_A: (The SRP_A Value) .

For more information about SECRET_HASH , see Computing secret hash values . For information about DEVICE_KEY , see Working with user devices in your user pool .

key -> (string)

value -> (string)

Shorthand Syntax:

KeyName1=string,KeyName2=string

JSON Syntax:

{"string": "string"
  ...}

--client-metadata (map)

A map of custom key-value pairs that you can provide as input for certain custom workflows that this action triggers.

You create custom workflows by assigning Lambda functions to user pool triggers. When you use the AdminInitiateAuth API action, Amazon Cognito invokes the Lambda functions that are specified for various triggers. The ClientMetadata value is passed as input to the functions for only the following triggers:

• Pre signup
• Pre authentication
• User migration

When Amazon Cognito invokes the functions for these triggers, it passes a JSON payload, which the function receives as input. This payload contains a validationData attribute, which provides the data that you assigned to the ClientMetadata parameter in your AdminInitiateAuth request. In your function code in Lambda, you can process the validationData value to enhance your workflow for your specific needs.

When you use the AdminInitiateAuth API action, Amazon Cognito also invokes the functions for the following triggers, but it doesn’t provide the ClientMetadata value as input:

• Post authentication
• Custom message
• Pre token generation
• Create auth challenge
• Define auth challenge
• Custom email sender
• Custom SMS sender

For more information, see Customizing user pool Workflows with Lambda Triggers in the Amazon Cognito Developer Guide .

Note

When you use the ClientMetadata parameter, note that Amazon Cognito won’t do the following:

• Store the ClientMetadata value. This data is available only to Lambda triggers that are assigned to a user pool to support custom workflows. If your user pool configuration doesn’t include triggers, the ClientMetadata parameter serves no purpose.
• Validate the ClientMetadata value.
• Encrypt the ClientMetadata value. Don’t send sensitive information in this parameter.

key -> (string)

value -> (string)

Shorthand Syntax:

KeyName1=string,KeyName2=string

JSON Syntax:

{"string": "string"
  ...}

--analytics-metadata (structure)

The analytics metadata for collecting Amazon Pinpoint metrics.

AnalyticsEndpointId -> (string)

The endpoint ID. Information that you want to pass to Amazon Pinpoint about where to send notifications.

Shorthand Syntax:

AnalyticsEndpointId=string

JSON Syntax:

{
  "AnalyticsEndpointId": "string"
}

--context-data (structure)

Contextual data about your user session, such as the device fingerprint, IP address, or location. Amazon Cognito advanced security evaluates the risk of an authentication event based on the context that your app generates and passes to Amazon Cognito when it makes API requests.

For more information, see Collecting data for threat protection in applications .

IpAddress -> (string)

The source IP address of your user’s device.

ServerName -> (string)

The name of your application’s service endpoint.

ServerPath -> (string)

The path of your application’s service endpoint.

HttpHeaders -> (list)

The HTTP headers from your user’s authentication request.

(structure)

The HTTP header in the ContextData parameter.

This data type is a request parameter of server-side authentication operations like AdminInitiateAuth and AdminRespondToAuthChallenge .

headerName -> (string)

The header name.

headerValue -> (string)

The header value.

EncodedData -> (string)

Encoded device-fingerprint details that your app collected with the Amazon Cognito context data collection library. For more information, see Adding user device and session data to API requests .

Shorthand Syntax:

IpAddress=string,ServerName=string,ServerPath=string,HttpHeaders=[{headerName=string,headerValue=string},{headerName=string,headerValue=string}],EncodedData=string

JSON Syntax:

{
  "IpAddress": "string",
  "ServerName": "string",
  "ServerPath": "string",
  "HttpHeaders": [
    {
      "headerName": "string",
      "headerValue": "string"
    }
    ...
  ],
  "EncodedData": "string"
}

--session (string)

The optional session ID from a ConfirmSignUp API request. You can sign in a user directly from the sign-up process with an AuthFlow of USER_AUTH and AuthParameters of EMAIL_OTP or SMS_OTP , depending on how your user pool sent the confirmation-code message.

--cli-input-json | --cli-input-yaml (string) Reads arguments from the JSON string provided. The JSON string follows the format provided by --generate-cli-skeleton. If other arguments are provided on the command line, those values will override the JSON-provided values. It is not possible to pass arbitrary binary values using a JSON-provided value as the string will be taken literally. This may not be specified along with --cli-input-yaml.

--generate-cli-skeleton (string) Prints a JSON skeleton to standard output without sending an API request. If provided with no value or the value input, prints a sample input JSON that can be used as an argument for --cli-input-json. Similarly, if provided yaml-input it will print a sample input YAML that can be used with --cli-input-yaml. If provided with the value output, it validates the command inputs and returns a sample output JSON for that command. The generated JSON skeleton is not stable between versions of the AWS CLI and there are no backwards compatibility guarantees in the JSON skeleton generated.

Global Options

--debug (boolean)

Turn on debug logging.

--endpoint-url (string)

Override command’s default URL with the given URL.

--no-verify-ssl (boolean)

By default, the AWS CLI uses SSL when communicating with AWS services. For each SSL connection, the AWS CLI will verify SSL certificates. This option overrides the default behavior of verifying SSL certificates.

--no-paginate (boolean)

Disable automatic pagination. If automatic pagination is disabled, the AWS CLI will only make one call, for the first page of results.

--output (string)

The formatting style for command output.

• json
• text
• table
• yaml
• yaml-stream

--query (string)

A JMESPath query to use in filtering the response data.

--profile (string)

Use a specific profile from your credential file.

--region (string)

The region to use. Overrides config/env settings.

--version (string)

Display the version of this tool.

--color (string)

Turn on/off color output.

• on
• off
• auto

--no-sign-request (boolean)

Do not sign requests. Credentials will not be loaded if this argument is provided.

--ca-bundle (string)

The CA certificate bundle to use when verifying SSL certificates. Overrides config/env settings.

--cli-read-timeout (int)

The maximum socket read time in seconds. If the value is set to 0, the socket read will be blocking and not timeout. The default value is 60 seconds.

--cli-connect-timeout (int)

The maximum socket connect time in seconds. If the value is set to 0, the socket connect will be blocking and not timeout. The default value is 60 seconds.

--cli-binary-format (string)

The formatting style to be used for binary blobs. The default format is base64. The base64 format expects binary blobs to be provided as a base64 encoded string. The raw-in-base64-out format preserves compatibility with AWS CLI V1 behavior and binary values must be passed literally. When providing contents from a file that map to a binary blob fileb:// will always be treated as binary and use the file contents directly regardless of the cli-binary-format setting. When using file:// the file contents will need to properly formatted for the configured cli-binary-format.

• base64
• raw-in-base64-out

--no-cli-pager (boolean)

Disable cli pager for output.

--cli-auto-prompt (boolean)

Automatically prompt for CLI input parameters.

--no-cli-auto-prompt (boolean)

Disable automatically prompt for CLI input parameters.

Examples

Note

To use the following examples, you must have the AWS CLI installed and configured. See the Getting started guide in the AWS CLI User Guide for more information.

Unless otherwise stated, all examples have unix-like quotation rules. These examples will need to be adapted to your terminal’s quoting rules. See Using quotation marks with strings in the AWS CLI User Guide .

To sign in a user as an admin

The following admin-initiate-auth example signs in the user diego@example.com. This example also includes metadata for threat protection and ClientMetadata for Lambda triggers. The user is configured for TOTP MFA and receives a challenge to provide a code from their authenticator app before they can complete authentication.

aws cognito-idp admin-initiate-auth \
    --user-pool-id us-west-2_EXAMPLE \
    --client-id 1example23456789 \
    --auth-flow ADMIN_USER_PASSWORD_AUTH \
    --auth-parameters USERNAME=diego@example.com,PASSWORD="My@Example$Password3!",SECRET_HASH=ExampleEncodedClientIdSecretAndUsername= \
    --context-data="{\"EncodedData\":\"abc123example\",\"HttpHeaders\":[{\"headerName\":\"UserAgent\",\"headerValue\":\"Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:47.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/47.0\"}],\"IpAddress\":\"192.0.2.1\",\"ServerName\":\"example.com\",\"ServerPath\":\"/login\"}" \
    --client-metadata="{\"MyExampleKey\": \"MyExampleValue\"}"

Output:

{
    "ChallengeName": "SOFTWARE_TOKEN_MFA",
    "Session": "AYABeExample...",
    "ChallengeParameters": {
        "FRIENDLY_DEVICE_NAME": "MyAuthenticatorApp",
        "USER_ID_FOR_SRP": "diego@example.com"
    }
}

For more information, see Admin authentication flow in the Amazon Cognito Developer Guide.

Output

ChallengeName -> (string)

The name of the challenge that you’re responding to with this call. This is returned in the AdminInitiateAuth response if you must pass another challenge.

• WEB_AUTHN : Respond to the challenge with the results of a successful authentication with a passkey, or webauthN, factor. These are typically biometric devices or security keys.
• PASSWORD : Respond with USER_PASSWORD_AUTH parameters: USERNAME (required), PASSWORD (required), SECRET_HASH (required if the app client is configured with a client secret), DEVICE_KEY .
• PASSWORD_SRP : Respond with USER_SRP_AUTH parameters: USERNAME (required), SRP_A (required), SECRET_HASH (required if the app client is configured with a client secret), DEVICE_KEY .
• SELECT_CHALLENGE : Respond to the challenge with USERNAME and an ANSWER that matches one of the challenge types in the AvailableChallenges response parameter.
• MFA_SETUP : If MFA is required, users who don’t have at least one of the MFA methods set up are presented with an MFA_SETUP challenge. The user must set up at least one MFA type to continue to authenticate.
• SELECT_MFA_TYPE : Selects the MFA type. Valid MFA options are SMS_MFA for SMS message MFA, EMAIL_OTP for email message MFA, and SOFTWARE_TOKEN_MFA for time-based one-time password (TOTP) software token MFA.
• SMS_MFA : Next challenge is to supply an SMS_MFA_CODE that your user pool delivered in an SMS message.
• EMAIL_OTP : Next challenge is to supply an EMAIL_OTP_CODE that your user pool delivered in an email message.
• PASSWORD_VERIFIER : Next challenge is to supply PASSWORD_CLAIM_SIGNATURE , PASSWORD_CLAIM_SECRET_BLOCK , and TIMESTAMP after the client-side SRP calculations.
• CUSTOM_CHALLENGE : This is returned if your custom authentication flow determines that the user should pass another challenge before tokens are issued.
• DEVICE_SRP_AUTH : If device tracking was activated in your user pool and the previous challenges were passed, this challenge is returned so that Amazon Cognito can start tracking this device.
• DEVICE_PASSWORD_VERIFIER : Similar to PASSWORD_VERIFIER , but for devices only.
• ADMIN_NO_SRP_AUTH : This is returned if you must authenticate with USERNAME and PASSWORD directly. An app client must be enabled to use this flow.
• NEW_PASSWORD_REQUIRED : For users who are required to change their passwords after successful first login. Respond to this challenge with NEW_PASSWORD and any required attributes that Amazon Cognito returned in the requiredAttributes parameter. You can also set values for attributes that aren’t required by your user pool and that your app client can write. For more information, see AdminRespondToAuthChallenge . Amazon Cognito only returns this challenge for users who have temporary passwords. Because of this, and because in some cases you can create users who don’t have values for required attributes, take care to collect and submit required-attribute values for all users who don’t have passwords. You can create a user in the Amazon Cognito console without, for example, a required birthdate attribute. The API response from Amazon Cognito won’t prompt you to submit a birthdate for the user if they don’t have a password.

Note

In a NEW_PASSWORD_REQUIRED challenge response, you can’t modify a required attribute that already has a value. In AdminRespondToAuthChallenge , set a value for any keys that Amazon Cognito returned in the requiredAttributes parameter, then use the AdminUpdateUserAttributes API operation to modify the value of any additional attributes.

• MFA_SETUP : For users who are required to set up an MFA factor before they can sign in. The MFA types activated for the user pool will be listed in the challenge parameters MFAS_CAN_SETUP value. To set up software token MFA, use the session returned here from InitiateAuth as an input to AssociateSoftwareToken , and use the session returned by VerifySoftwareToken as an input to RespondToAuthChallenge with challenge name MFA_SETUP to complete sign-in. To set up SMS MFA, users will need help from an administrator to add a phone number to their account and then call InitiateAuth again to restart sign-in.

Session -> (string)

The session that must be passed to challenge-response requests. If an AdminInitiateAuth or AdminRespondToAuthChallenge API request determines that the caller must pass another challenge, Amazon Cognito returns a session ID and the parameters of the next challenge. Pass this session Id in the Session parameter of AdminRespondToAuthChallenge .

ChallengeParameters -> (map)

The challenge parameters. These are returned to you in the AdminInitiateAuth response if you must pass another challenge. The responses in this parameter should be used to compute inputs to the next call (AdminRespondToAuthChallenge ).

All challenges require USERNAME and SECRET_HASH (if applicable).

The value of the USER_ID_FOR_SRP attribute is the user’s actual username, not an alias (such as email address or phone number), even if you specified an alias in your call to AdminInitiateAuth . This happens because, in the AdminRespondToAuthChallenge API ChallengeResponses , the USERNAME attribute can’t be an alias.

key -> (string)

value -> (string)

AuthenticationResult -> (structure)

The outcome of successful authentication. This is only returned if the user pool has no additional challenges to return. If Amazon Cognito returns another challenge, the response includes ChallengeName , ChallengeParameters , and Session so that your user can answer the challenge.

AccessToken -> (string)

Your user’s access token.

ExpiresIn -> (integer)

The expiration period of the authentication result in seconds.

TokenType -> (string)

The intended use of the token, for example Bearer .

RefreshToken -> (string)

Your user’s refresh token.

IdToken -> (string)

Your user’s ID token.

NewDeviceMetadata -> (structure)

The new device metadata from an authentication result.

DeviceKey -> (string)

The device key, an identifier used in generating the DEVICE_PASSWORD_VERIFIER for device SRP authentication.

DeviceGroupKey -> (string)

The device group key, an identifier used in generating the DEVICE_PASSWORD_VERIFIER for device SRP authentication.