respond-to-auth-challenge

Description

Some API operations in a user pool generate a challenge, like a prompt for an MFA code, for device authentication that bypasses MFA, or for a custom authentication challenge. A RespondToAuthChallenge API request provides the answer to that challenge, like a code or a secure remote password (SRP). The parameters of a response to an authentication challenge vary with the type of challenge.

For more information about custom authentication challenges, see Custom authentication challenge Lambda triggers .

Note

Amazon Cognito doesn’t evaluate Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies in requests for this API operation. For this operation, you can’t use IAM credentials to authorize requests, and you can’t grant IAM permissions in policies. For more information about authorization models in Amazon Cognito, see Using the Amazon Cognito user pools API and user pool endpoints .

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 .

Synopsis

  respond-to-auth-challenge
--client-id <value>
--challenge-name <value>
[--session <value>]
[--challenge-responses <value>]
[--analytics-metadata <value>]
[--user-context-data <value>]
[--client-metadata <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

--client-id (string)

The ID of the app client where the user is signing in.

--challenge-name (string)

The name of the challenge that you are responding to.

Note

You can’t respond to an ADMIN_NO_SRP_AUTH challenge with this operation.

Possible challenges include the following:

Note

All of the following challenges require USERNAME and, when the app client has a client secret, SECRET_HASH in the parameters.

WEB_AUTHN : Respond to the challenge with the results of a successful authentication with a WebAuthn authenticator, or passkey. Examples of WebAuthn authenticators include biometric devices and 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.
SMS_MFA : Respond with an SMS_MFA_CODE that your user pool delivered in an SMS message.
EMAIL_OTP : Respond with an EMAIL_OTP_CODE that your user pool delivered in an email message.
PASSWORD_VERIFIER : Respond with PASSWORD_CLAIM_SIGNATURE , PASSWORD_CLAIM_SECRET_BLOCK , and TIMESTAMP after 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. The parameters of the challenge are determined by your Lambda function.
DEVICE_SRP_AUTH : Respond with the initial parameters of device SRP authentication. For more information, see Signing in with a device .
DEVICE_PASSWORD_VERIFIER : Respond with PASSWORD_CLAIM_SIGNATURE , PASSWORD_CLAIM_SECRET_BLOCK , and TIMESTAMP after client-side SRP calculations. For more information, see Signing in with a device .
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. Amazon Cognito only returns this challenge for users who have temporary passwords. When you create passwordless users, you must provide values for all required attributes.

Note

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

MFA_SETUP : For users who are required to setup 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 time-based one-time password (TOTP) MFA, use the session returned in this challenge from InitiateAuth or AdminInitiateAuth as an input to AssociateSoftwareToken . Then, use the session returned by VerifySoftwareToken as an input to RespondToAuthChallenge or AdminRespondToAuthChallenge with challenge name MFA_SETUP to complete sign-in. To set up SMS or email MFA, collect a phone_number or email attribute for the user. Then restart the authentication flow with an InitiateAuth or AdminInitiateAuth request.

Possible values:

SMS_MFA
EMAIL_OTP
SOFTWARE_TOKEN_MFA
SELECT_MFA_TYPE
MFA_SETUP
PASSWORD_VERIFIER
CUSTOM_CHALLENGE
SELECT_CHALLENGE
DEVICE_SRP_AUTH
DEVICE_PASSWORD_VERIFIER
ADMIN_NO_SRP_AUTH
NEW_PASSWORD_REQUIRED
SMS_OTP
PASSWORD
WEB_AUTHN
PASSWORD_SRP

--session (string)

The session identifier that maintains the state of authentication requests and challenge responses. If an AdminInitiateAuth or AdminRespondToAuthChallenge API request results in a determination that your application must pass another challenge, Amazon Cognito returns a session with other challenge parameters. Send this session identifier, unmodified, to the next AdminRespondToAuthChallenge request.

--challenge-responses (map)

The responses to the challenge that you received in the previous request. Each challenge has its own required response parameters. The following examples are partial JSON request bodies that highlight challenge-response parameters.

Warning

You must provide a SECRET_HASH parameter in all challenge responses to an app client that has a client secret. Include a DEVICE_KEY for device authentication.

SELECT_CHALLENGE

"ChallengeName": "SELECT_CHALLENGE", "ChallengeResponses": { "USERNAME": "[username]", "ANSWER": "[Challenge name]"}

Available challenges are PASSWORD , PASSWORD_SRP , EMAIL_OTP , SMS_OTP , and WEB_AUTHN .

Complete authentication in the SELECT_CHALLENGE response for PASSWORD , PASSWORD_SRP , and WEB_AUTHN :

"ChallengeName": "SELECT_CHALLENGE", "ChallengeResponses": { "ANSWER": "WEB_AUTHN", "USERNAME": "[username]", "CREDENTIAL": "[AuthenticationResponseJSON]"} See AuthenticationResponseJSON .
"ChallengeName": "SELECT_CHALLENGE", "ChallengeResponses": { "ANSWER": "PASSWORD", "USERNAME": "[username]", "PASSWORD": "[password]"}
"ChallengeName": "SELECT_CHALLENGE", "ChallengeResponses": { "ANSWER": "PASSWORD_SRP", "USERNAME": "[username]", "SRP_A": "[SRP_A]"}

For SMS_OTP and EMAIL_OTP , respond with the username and answer. Your user pool will send a code for the user to submit in the next challenge response.

"ChallengeName": "SELECT_CHALLENGE", "ChallengeResponses": { "ANSWER": "SMS_OTP", "USERNAME": "[username]"}
"ChallengeName": "SELECT_CHALLENGE", "ChallengeResponses": { "ANSWER": "EMAIL_OTP", "USERNAME": "[username]"}

SMS_OTP

"ChallengeName": "SMS_OTP", "ChallengeResponses": {"SMS_OTP_CODE": "[code]", "USERNAME": "[username]"}

EMAIL_OTP

"ChallengeName": "EMAIL_OTP", "ChallengeResponses": {"EMAIL_OTP_CODE": "[code]", "USERNAME": "[username]"}

SMS_MFA

"ChallengeName": "SMS_MFA", "ChallengeResponses": {"SMS_MFA_CODE": "[code]", "USERNAME": "[username]"}

PASSWORD_VERIFIER

This challenge response is part of the SRP flow. Amazon Cognito requires that your application respond to this challenge within a few seconds. When the response time exceeds this period, your user pool returns a NotAuthorizedException error.

"ChallengeName": "PASSWORD_VERIFIER", "ChallengeResponses": {"PASSWORD_CLAIM_SIGNATURE": "[claim_signature]", "PASSWORD_CLAIM_SECRET_BLOCK": "[secret_block]", "TIMESTAMP": [timestamp], "USERNAME": "[username]"}

Add "DEVICE_KEY" when you sign in with a remembered device.

CUSTOM_CHALLENGE

"ChallengeName": "CUSTOM_CHALLENGE", "ChallengeResponses": {"USERNAME": "[username]", "ANSWER": "[challenge_answer]"}

Add "DEVICE_KEY" when you sign in with a remembered device.

NEW_PASSWORD_REQUIRED

"ChallengeName": "NEW_PASSWORD_REQUIRED", "ChallengeResponses": {"NEW_PASSWORD": "[new_password]", "USERNAME": "[username]"}

To set any required attributes that InitiateAuth returned in an requiredAttributes parameter, add "userAttributes.[attribute_name]": "[attribute_value]" . This parameter can also set values for writable attributes that aren’t required by your user pool.

Note

SOFTWARE_TOKEN_MFA

"ChallengeName": "SOFTWARE_TOKEN_MFA", "ChallengeResponses": {"USERNAME": "[username]", "SOFTWARE_TOKEN_MFA_CODE": [authenticator_code]}

DEVICE_SRP_AUTH

"ChallengeName": "DEVICE_SRP_AUTH", "ChallengeResponses": {"USERNAME": "[username]", "DEVICE_KEY": "[device_key]", "SRP_A": "[srp_a]"}

DEVICE_PASSWORD_VERIFIER

"ChallengeName": "DEVICE_PASSWORD_VERIFIER", "ChallengeResponses": {"DEVICE_KEY": "[device_key]", "PASSWORD_CLAIM_SIGNATURE": "[claim_signature]", "PASSWORD_CLAIM_SECRET_BLOCK": "[secret_block]", "TIMESTAMP": [timestamp], "USERNAME": "[username]"}

MFA_SETUP

"ChallengeName": "MFA_SETUP", "ChallengeResponses": {"USERNAME": "[username]"}, "SESSION": "[Session ID from VerifySoftwareToken]"

SELECT_MFA_TYPE

"ChallengeName": "SELECT_MFA_TYPE", "ChallengeResponses": {"USERNAME": "[username]", "ANSWER": "[SMS_MFA or SOFTWARE_TOKEN_MFA]"}

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"
  ...}

--analytics-metadata (structure)

Information that supports analytics outcomes with Amazon Pinpoint, including the user’s endpoint ID. The endpoint ID is a destination for Amazon Pinpoint push notifications, for example a device identifier, email address, or phone number.

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"
}

--user-context-data (structure)

Contextual data about your user session like the device fingerprint, IP address, or location. Amazon Cognito threat protection 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.

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,EncodedData=string

JSON Syntax:

{
  "IpAddress": "string",
  "EncodedData": "string"
}

--client-metadata (map)

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

You create custom workflows by assigning Lambda functions to user pool triggers. When you use the RespondToAuthChallenge API action, Amazon Cognito invokes any functions that are assigned to the following triggers: post authentication , pre token generation , define auth challenge , create auth challenge , and verify auth challenge . When Amazon Cognito invokes any of these functions, it passes a JSON payload, which the function receives as input. This payload contains a clientMetadata attribute, which provides the data that you assigned to the ClientMetadata parameter in your RespondToAuthChallenge request. In your function code in Lambda, you can process the clientMetadata value to enhance your workflow for your specific needs.

For more information, see Using 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"
  ...}

--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 .

Example 1: To respond to a NEW_PASSWORD_REQUIRED challenge

The following respond-to-auth-challenge example responds to a NEW_PASSWORD_REQUIRED challenge that `initiate-auth`_ returned. It sets a password for the user jane@example.com.

aws cognito-idp respond-to-auth-challenge \
    --client-id 1example23456789 \
    --challenge-name NEW_PASSWORD_REQUIRED \
    --challenge-responses USERNAME=jane@example.com,NEW_PASSWORD=[Password] \
    --session AYABeEv5HklEXAMPLE

Output:

{
    "ChallengeParameters": {},
    "AuthenticationResult": {
        "AccessToken": "ACCESS_TOKEN",
        "ExpiresIn": 3600,
        "TokenType": "Bearer",
        "RefreshToken": "REFRESH_TOKEN",
        "IdToken": "ID_TOKEN",
        "NewDeviceMetadata": {
            "DeviceKey": "us-west-2_a1b2c3d4-5678-90ab-cdef-EXAMPLE11111",
            "DeviceGroupKey": "-wt2ha1Zd"
        }
    }
}

For more information, see Authentication in the Amazon Cognito Developer Guide.

Example 2: To respond to a SELECT_MFA_TYPE challenge

The following respond-to-auth-challenge example chooses TOTP MFA as the MFA option for the current user. The user was prompted to select an MFA type and will next be prompted to enter their MFA code.

aws cognito-idp respond-to-auth-challenge \
    --client-id 1example23456789
    --session AYABeEv5HklEXAMPLE
    --challenge-name SELECT_MFA_TYPE
    --challenge-responses USERNAME=testuser,ANSWER=SOFTWARE_TOKEN_MFA

Output:

{
    "ChallengeName": "SOFTWARE_TOKEN_MFA",
    "Session": "AYABeEv5HklEXAMPLE",
    "ChallengeParameters": {
        "FRIENDLY_DEVICE_NAME": "transparent"
    }
}

For more information, see Adding MFA in the Amazon Cognito Developer Guide.

Example 3: To respond to a SOFTWARE_TOKEN_MFA challenge

The following respond-to-auth-challenge example provides a TOTP MFA code and completes sign-in.

aws cognito-idp respond-to-auth-challenge \
    --client-id 1example23456789 \
    --session AYABeEv5HklEXAMPLE \
    --challenge-name SOFTWARE_TOKEN_MFA \
    --challenge-responses USERNAME=testuser,SOFTWARE_TOKEN_MFA_CODE=123456

Output:

{
    "AuthenticationResult": {
        "AccessToken": "eyJra456defEXAMPLE",
        "ExpiresIn": 3600,
        "TokenType": "Bearer",
        "RefreshToken": "eyJra123abcEXAMPLE",
        "IdToken": "eyJra789ghiEXAMPLE",
        "NewDeviceMetadata": {
            "DeviceKey": "us-west-2_a1b2c3d4-5678-90ab-cdef-EXAMPLE11111",
            "DeviceGroupKey": "-v7w9UcY6"
        }
    }
}

For more information, see Adding MFA in the Amazon Cognito Developer Guide.

Output

ChallengeName -> (string)

The name of the next challenge that you must respond to.

Possible challenges include the following:

Note

All of the following challenges require USERNAME and, when the app client has a client secret, SECRET_HASH in the parameters.

WEB_AUTHN : Respond to the challenge with the results of a successful authentication with a WebAuthn authenticator, or passkey. Examples of WebAuthn authenticators include biometric devices and 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.
SMS_MFA : Respond with an SMS_MFA_CODE that your user pool delivered in an SMS message.
EMAIL_OTP : Respond with an EMAIL_OTP_CODE that your user pool delivered in an email message.
PASSWORD_VERIFIER : Respond with PASSWORD_CLAIM_SIGNATURE , PASSWORD_CLAIM_SECRET_BLOCK , and TIMESTAMP after 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. The parameters of the challenge are determined by your Lambda function.
DEVICE_SRP_AUTH : Respond with the initial parameters of device SRP authentication. For more information, see Signing in with a device .
DEVICE_PASSWORD_VERIFIER : Respond with PASSWORD_CLAIM_SIGNATURE , PASSWORD_CLAIM_SECRET_BLOCK , and TIMESTAMP after client-side SRP calculations. For more information, see Signing in with a device .
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. Amazon Cognito only returns this challenge for users who have temporary passwords. When you create passwordless users, you must provide values for all required attributes.

Note

MFA_SETUP : For users who are required to setup 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 time-based one-time password (TOTP) MFA, use the session returned in this challenge from InitiateAuth or AdminInitiateAuth as an input to AssociateSoftwareToken . Then, use the session returned by VerifySoftwareToken as an input to RespondToAuthChallenge or AdminRespondToAuthChallenge with challenge name MFA_SETUP to complete sign-in. To set up SMS or email MFA, collect a phone_number or email attribute for the user. Then restart the authentication flow with an InitiateAuth or AdminInitiateAuth request.

Session -> (string)

The session identifier that maintains the state of authentication requests and challenge responses. If an InitiateAuth or RespondToAuthChallenge API request results in a determination that your application must pass another challenge, Amazon Cognito returns a session with other challenge parameters. Send this session identifier, unmodified, to the next RespondToAuthChallenge request.

ChallengeParameters -> (map)

The parameters that define your response to the next challenge.

key -> (string)

value -> (string)

AuthenticationResult -> (structure)

The outcome of a successful authentication process. After your application has passed all challenges, Amazon Cognito returns an AuthenticationResult with the JSON web tokens (JWTs) that indicate successful sign-in.

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.