A Guide to User Authentication in Amazon Cognito using Python – Part 2

Overview

In the previous blog post, we learned how to connect Amazon Cognito registration with Boto3. We made a signup part and set it up with the User Pool. In this new blog, we’ll find out how to do these things: resend a verification code, guide on how to log in to a user in the Amazon Cognito user pool, and handle forgotten and changed passwords using Boto3.

Introduction

Amazon Cognito is an Amazon Web Services (AWS) service that provides identity and user management for your applications. It’s commonly used to add user registration, authentication, and authorization features to web and mobile apps. Amazon Cognito simplifies handling user identities and securing access to your application’s resources.

Resend Verification Code Using Amazon Cognito, Python SDK Boto3

Imagine you didn’t get the verification code, or your app has a resending button. You can use AWS Cognito to resend the verification code in such cases. Here’s how to do it.

When you execute the above code, you will get this back as a response,

Log in and get user details using Amazon Cognito, Python SDK Boto3

You’ve just made a new user and confirmed them. Now, the next thing to do is to log in and fetch some information about the user from Amazon Cognito. Here’s how you can do it.

Please be aware that sometimes you might encounter this error.

If you come across this error, please go to the Amazon Cognito > User Pool > (Your-user-pool-name) > App integration > Select your App Client and navigate to the Authentication flows Configuration section. Make sure that you have the “ALLOW_USER_PASSWORD_AUTH” option selected. If you’re testing, you can enable all the options like this for testing purposes.

After you use “initiate_auth” you’ll receive a JSON response. You only need to find AccessToken from this response and use it in the “get_user” function. When you do this, you’ll get the following response.

Forgot Password Using Amazon Cognito, Python SDK Boto3

Using this method will send a message to the user. This message contains a code that they need to change their password. It’s an important step in keeping their account secure. Here’s how you can do it.

When you execute the above code, you will get this back as a response,

Confirm Forgot Password using Amazon Cognito, Python SDK Boto3

You will receive this as a response when you execute the above code.

Change the Password of an Existing User using Amazon Cognito

This method helps you change the password for a user with an account. It updates the password for a specific user in a user pool. To use this method, you must have the AccessToken of the user you want to change the password for.

When you execute the above code, you will get this back as a response,

Conclusion

You can be confident that AWS will handle things like keeping the service up-to-date with the latest security updates so you won’t have to worry about security vulnerabilities.

Drop a query if you have any questions regarding Amazon Cognito and we will get back to you quickly.

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