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Page updated May 17, 2024

Tokens and credentials

Amplify Auth interacts with its underlying Amazon Cognito user pool as an OpenID Connect (OIDC) provider. When users successfully authenticate you receive OIDC-compliant JSON web tokens (JWT). These tokens are used to identity your user, and access resources.

Access tokens are used to verify the bearer of the token (i.e. the Cognito user) is authorized to perform an action against a resource. Below is an example payload of an access token vended by Cognito:

{
"sub": "54288468-e051-706d-a73f-03892273d7e9",
"iss": "https://cognito-idp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/us-east-1_yoKn9s4Tq",
"client_id": "1sg675g08g6g0e9f64grv9n5sk",
"origin_jti": "0eadb994-a6e0-419e-b309-a7a0d522d72f",
"event_id": "b180897a-181c-4f73-94bb-a2946e8b4ef1",
"token_use": "access",
"scope": "aws.cognito.signin.user.admin",
"auth_time": 1714241873,
"exp": 1714245473,
"iat": 1714241873,
"jti": "57f10a4d-a1f2-453b-8672-d1cfa8187047",
"username": "54288468-e051-706d-a73f-03892273d7e9"
}

ID tokens are intended to be used within your frontend application only. This token contains personally identifiable information (PII) and should not be used to authorize access against a resource. Below is an example of an ID token with the default Amplify Auth configuration of email and password auth.

{
"sub": "54288468-e051-706d-a73f-03892273d7e9",
"email_verified": true,
"iss": "https://cognito-idp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/us-east-1_yoKn9s4Tq",
"cognito:username": "54288468-e051-706d-a73f-03892273d7e9",
"origin_jti": "0eadb994-a6e0-419e-b309-a7a0d522d72f",
"aud": "1sg675g08g6g0e9f64grv9n5sk",
"event_id": "b180897a-181c-4f73-94bb-a2946e8b4ef1",
"token_use": "id",
"auth_time": 1714241873,
"exp": 1714245473,
"iat": 1714241873,
"jti": "bb69af10-3ce0-47c2-8d8d-5bdc8630ab58",
"email": "hello@mycompany.com"
}

When additional user attributes are specified for Amplify Auth, their values will be found in the ID token. For example, if a nickname attribute is requested it will be available on the ID token with the nickname claim:

{
"sub": "54288468-e051-706d-a73f-03892273d7e9",
"email_verified": true,
"iss": "https://cognito-idp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/us-east-1_yoKn9s4Tq",
"cognito:username": "54288468-e051-706d-a73f-03892273d7e9",
"origin_jti": "0eadb994-a6e0-419e-b309-a7a0d522d72f",
"aud": "1sg675g08g6g0e9f64grv9n5sk",
"event_id": "b180897a-181c-4f73-94bb-a2946e8b4ef1",
"token_use": "id",
"auth_time": 1714241873,
+ "nickname": "hello",
"exp": 1714245473,
"iat": 1714241873,
"jti": "bb69af10-3ce0-47c2-8d8d-5bdc8630ab58",
"email": "hello@mycompany.com"
}

Conversely, user pool group claims are found in both the access token and ID token on the cognito:groups claim:

{
"sub": "54288468-e051-706d-a73f-03892273d7e9",
"email_verified": true,
"iss": "https://cognito-idp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/us-east-1_yoKn9s4Tq",
"cognito:username": "54288468-e051-706d-a73f-03892273d7e9",
"cognito:groups": ["ADMINS"],
"origin_jti": "0eadb994-a6e0-419e-b309-a7a0d522d72f",
"aud": "1sg675g08g6g0e9f64grv9n5sk",
"event_id": "b180897a-181c-4f73-94bb-a2946e8b4ef1",
"token_use": "id",
"auth_time": 1714241873,
"nickname": "hello",
"exp": 1714245473,
"iat": 1714241873,
"jti": "bb69af10-3ce0-47c2-8d8d-5bdc8630ab58",
"email": "hello@mycompany.com"
}

Visit the AWS documentation for using tokens with Cognito user pools to learn more about tokens, how they're used with Cognito, and their intended usage.

Token Revocation

Token revocation is enabled automatically in Amplify Auth. To revoke tokens you can invoke await Amplify.Auth.signOut(options: .init(globalSignOut: true)) to globally sign out your user from all of their devices.

Next steps