Set up Single Sign-On (SSO) on AWS Cognito with the WordPress OAuth & OpenID Connect Single Sign-On plugin. Implementing Cognito SSO allows users to log into your websites and applications with a single set of credentials using the AWS Cognito login credentials.

AWS Cognito, or Amazon Cognito, acts as the OAuth Provider and WordPress acts as the OAuth Client. WordPress Cognito Authentication provides smooth login between these two, removing the need to remember usernames and passwords.

The Cognito OAuth WordPress plugin also provides advanced SSO features like user profile attribute mapping, role mapping, and role-based access for user profiles. You can also protect your complete WordPress site behind SSO. Amazon Cognito WordPress OAuth SSO plugin secure’s the user’s login process and improves user authentication authority. Follow the steps in the guide below to install this plugin.

Prerequisites: Download and Installation

• Log into your WordPress instance as an admin.
• Go to the WordPress Dashboard -> Plugins and click on Add New.
• Search for a WordPress OAuth Single Sign-On (SSO) plugin and click on Install Now.
• Once installed click on Activate.

Steps to configure AWS Cognito Single Sign-On (SSO) Login into WordPress

1. Setup Amazon Cognito as OAuth Provider

• First of all, go to Amazon Console and sign up/login in your account to Configure AWS Cognito.

• Search for Cognito in the AWS Services search bar as shown below.

• Click on Mange User Pools button to see the list of your user pools.

• Click on Create a user pool to create a new user pool.

• Add a Pool Name and click on the Review Defaults button to continue.

• Scroll down and click on “Add app client” & then again click on Add an app client.

• Enter an App Client Name and click on Create app client to create an App client.

• Click on Return to Pool Details to come back to your configuration.

• Click on Create Pool button to save your settings and create a user pool.

• In the navigation bar present on the left side, click on the App Client Settings option under the App Integration menu.

• Enable Identity provider as Cognito user pool and enter your Callback/Redirect URL which you will get from your miniOrange plugin present on your Client side under the CallBack URLs text-field. Select Authorization code grant checkbox under the Allowed OAuth Flows and also select openid and profile checkboxes under the Allowed OAuth Scopes option (Please refer to the image below). Click on the Save Changes button to save your configurations.

• Click on Choose Domain Name option to set a domain name for your app.

• Go to domain name and enter a domain name for your app. After adding domain name you can check its availability by clicking on “Check availability” button. After entering valid domain name click ”Save changes” button.

• Complete domain name: Copy the complete domain name {your domain name}.auth.{region name}.amazoncognito.com. You need to enter this into the endpoints field under <cognito-app-domain> in the miniOrange OAuth Single Sign-On (SSO) plugin.

• Go to “App client” and click on “Show details” to get a client ID and client secret. (Keep client ID and client secret handy as you will need it later.)

• Click on Users and groups option under the General Settings menu in the left side navigation bar. Then, click on the Create user button to add a new user.

• Fill all the required details and click on Create user.

• You can see the new user created.

You have successfully configured AWS Cognito as OAuth Provider for for achieving AWS Cognito Single Sign-On (SSO) with WordPress for user authentication.

2. Setup WordPress as OAuth Client

3. User Attribute Mapping

• User Attribute Mapping is mandatory for enabling users to successfully Single Sign-On into WordPress using AWS SSO. We will be setting up user profile attributes for WordPress using the below settings.

Finding user attributes

• Go to Configure OAuth tab. Scroll down and click on Test Configuration.

• You will see all the values returned by your OAuth Provider to WordPress in a table. If you don't see value for First Name, Last Name, Email or Username, make the required settings in your OAuth Provider to return this information.

• Once you see all the values in Test Configuration, go to Attribute / Role Mapping tab, select attributes from Username dropdown and click on Save.

4: Role Mapping [Premium]

• Click on “Test Configuration” and you will get the list of Attribute Names and Attribute Values that are sent by your OAuth provider.
• From the Test Configuration window, map the Attribute Names in the Attribute Mapping section of the plugin. Refer to the screenshot for more details.

• Enable Role Mapping: To enable Role Mapping, you need to map Group Name Attribute. Select the attribute name from the list of attributes which returns the roles from your provider application.
  Eg: Role


• Assign WordPress role to the Provider role: Based on your provider application, you can allocate the WordPress role to your provider roles. It can be a student, teacher, administrator or any other depending on your application. Add the provider roles under Group Attribute Value and assign the required WordPress role in front of it under WordPress Role.
  
  For example, in the below image. Teacher has been assigned the role of Administrator & Student is assigned the role of Subscriber.

• Once you save the mapping, the provider role will be assigned the WordPress administrator role after SSO.
  Example: As per the given example, Users with role ‘teacher’ will be added as Administrator in WordPress and ‘student’ will be added as Subscriber.

5. Sign In Settings

• The settings in Single Sign-On (SSO) Settings tab define the user experience for Single Sign-On (SSO). To add a AWS Cognito login widget on your WordPress page, you need to follow the below steps.

Sign in settings for WordPress 5.7 and before

• Go to WordPress Left Panel > Appearances > Widgets.
• Select miniOrange OAuth. Drag and drop to your favourite location and save.


Sign in settings for WordPress 5.8

• Go to WordPress Left Panel > Appearances > Widgets.
• Select miniOrange OAuth. Drag and drop to your favourite location and save.

• Open your WordPress page and you can see the AWS Cognito SSO login button there. You can test the AWS Cognito Single Sign-On (SSO) now.

Sign in settings for WordPress 5.9

• Make sure the "Show on login page" option is enabled for your application. (Refer to the below image)

• Now, go to your WordPress Login page. (Eg. https://< your-wordpress-domain >/wp-login.php)
• You will see an AWS Cognito SSO login button there. Once you click the login button, you will be able to test the AWS Cognito Single Sign-On (SSO).