SAML Single Sign-On (SSO) into AWS Cognito using Joomla IDP Plugin

Overview

Single Sign-On in AWS Cognito using Joomla IDP allows users to log in to AWS Cognito using Joomla by configuring AWS Cognito as a Service Provider (SP) and Joomla as a SAML Identity Provider (IDP). This guide will take you through a step-by-step process to configure SSO between the two platforms.

What is AWS Cognito?
AWS Cognito is a service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that offers authentication, authorization, and user management for web and mobile applications. It simplifies the process of adding user sign-up, sign-in, and access control to your apps.

Configuration Steps

In this setup, Joomla serves as the repository for storing users i.e. it will act as the IDP while AWS Cognito is where users will log in using their credentials from Joomla where Joomla SAML IDP SSO Plugin will be installed.

Step 1: Configure AWS Cognito as SP (Service Provider)

• First of all, go to AWS Cognito Console and sign up/login in your account to Configure AWS Cognito.
• Go to Services > Security, Identity, & Compliance > Cognito.

• Click Manage User Pools, then Create a user pool.

• Enter a name for the Pool Name. Click Review Defaults, then Create Pool.

• After creating a pool keep the Pool ID handy or you can note down so that it will help to configure your IdP.

• On the left pane, click on Domain Name under App Integration. Enter an available domain prefix, then save it. Keep this Domain it will require in ACS URL to configure your IDP.

• On the left pane, click on Identity Provider under Federation. Then Select SAML.

• Upload the Joomla IDP metadata, name it, then click Create Provider.

• Add this
  

  http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/emailaddress

  
  attribute in SAML attribute text field and select User Pool Attribute as Email.

• Click Save changes.

Step 2: Configuring Joomla as Identity Provider

• In miniOrange Joomla SAML IDP Plugin, go to Service Provider tab.
• In the SP Entity ID field, enter urn:amazon:cognito:sp:(YourUserPoolId) , (remove anchor (<>) tag and add your user pool id which you have already copied above while creating the pool.
• Replace "yourUserPoolId" with your Amazon Cognito user pool ID.
• To find the User Pool ID:
• Log in to the AWS Management Console as an administrator.
• Go to Services > Security, Identity, & Compliance, then select Cognito.
• Select Manage User Pools, then the user pool you want to use in the configuration.
• Find Pool Id at the top of the list.
• In the ACS URL field, enter:
  

              https://YourSubdomain.amazoncognito.com/saml2/idpresponse
          

  
  and save it.
• Please replace YourSubdomain with which you have created in the above step.

• You can also find your subdomain by following below steps:
  • To find YourSubdomain:
  • Click on Domain Name under App Integration.
  • Copy the whole URL and replace it with YourSubdomain in the ACS URL (please remove all the whitespaces here).

• Enable the Assertion Sign checkbox to sign the assertion and click on the Save button.
• To map the attributes click on the Mapping tab. Select your Service Provider from the dropdown.
• Add this
  

              http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/emailaddress
          

  
  value in Attribute Name textfield and Select Email Address form Attribute Value dropdown. Click on the Save Mapping button.

Step 3: Configure App Client in AWS Cognito

• Now click on the App Clients under General Settings. Click on Add an App Client.

• Enter App client name. For eg. JoomlaIdP. Disable the Generate client secret checkbox and click on the Create App Client button at the bottom.

• Now click on the App Client settings under App Integration at the left pane.
• Enable Select all checkbox, enter Callback URL(s) and Sign out URL(s). Select Implicit Grant under Allowed OAuth Flows. Now Enable email and openid checkbox under Allowed OAuth Scopes and click on Save Changes button at the bottom right corner.

• Now click on Launch Hosted UI at the bottom to perform SSO.

• You can also use the following SSO URL for perform the SSO.

        https://(domain_prefix).auth.(region).amazoncognito.com/login?
        response_type=token&client_id=(app client id)&redirect_uri=(your redirect URI)
    

• Now you have successfully configured miniOrange Joomla SAML IDP with AWS Cognito as SP.

Related Articles

• What is Single Sign-On (SSO)?
• What is SAML?
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)