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SMS One Time Password (OTP) Step Up Authentication

This solution includes components to support step-up auth, using SMS One-Time-Password (OTP):

  • AWS Lambda functions that implement the Amazon Cognito Custom Authentication flow, using Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) to send the SMS-es with a One-Time-Password (OTP) to users.
  • The library aws-jwt-verify is used to verify it is indeed a step-up case, i.e. the user must posses valid JWTs already.
  • Front End library functions, to work with this Custom Auth flow––can be used in Web, React, React Native.

SMS OTP code

Customizing Auth - e.g. to use your own SMS template

If you want to do customization of this solution that goes beyond the parameters of the Passwordless construct, e.g. to use your own SMS template, see CUSTOMIZE-AUTH.md

AWS Architecture

SMS OTP Step Up AWS Architecture

Step-up Authentication with SMS One-Time-Password

First, you must sign-in via another sign-in method (e.g. Magic Link). Then you can step-up auth: sign-in again with a SMS One-Time-Password (OTP).

In order to prove to the back-end server that this is indeed a Step-Up auth we recommend a procedure such as the following.

Sample Procedure

Architect the interaction with the backend, such that it is 2-legged. For example, let's consider a user wanting to do a banking transaction. This could then work as follows:

  • First leg: the user's client calls the backend, to initiate the transaction. The backend doesn't execute the transaction yet but only returns a unique transaction ID that it generated randomly
  • The user's client then initiates the SMS OTP Step Up auth (initiateAuth). A custom authentication starts, in which an OTP is generated and sent to the user via SMS
  • The user submits the received OTP to the client
  • The user's client sends the received OTP as well as it's current valid JWT to Amazon Cognito (respondToAuthChallenge), and provides the transaction ID as part of the clientMetadata to Amazon Cognito
  • The Verify Auth trigger verifies the OTP as well as the JWT (proving this is an auth step-up, as you must have a valid JWT already to pass this)
  • You have configured the Amazon Cognito pre-token trigger to add the transaction ID from the clientMetadata as a claim to the JWT
  • Second leg: the user's client calls the backend again to confirm the transaction, with the new JWT, that now has the transaction ID as a claim.
  • The backend verifies the JWT and the transaction ID claim. The backend can now deduce that indeed the user was able to prove their identity again: the user stepped-up auth in context of the transaction ID concerned. The backend can now proceed with executing the transaction (or do any other checks it deems necessary).
sequenceDiagram
    autonumber
    actor User
    participant Cl as Client
    participant C as Amazon Cognito
    participant B as Banking Transaction Backend
    participant DA as DefineAuth trigger
    participant CA as CreateAuthChallenge trigger
    participant VA as VerifyAnswer trigger
    participant PT as PreToken trigger
    participant SNS as Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS)
    User->>Cl: Execute transaction
    Activate User
    Activate Cl
    Cl->>B: Initiate transaction
    Activate B
    B->>B: Generate transaction ID
    B->>Cl: Transaction ID
    DeActivate B
    Cl->>C: Initiate Auth
    Activate C
    C->>DA: Invoke
    Activate DA
    DA->>C: Custom challenge
    DeActivate DA
    C->>CA: Create challenge
    Activate CA
    CA->>CA: Generate OTP
    CA->>SNS: Send OTP
    Activate SNS
    SNS->>User: SMS w. OTP
    SNS->>CA: Ok
    DeActivate SNS
    CA->>C: Ok
    DeActivate CA
    C->>Cl: Custom challenge
    DeActivate C
    Cl->>User: Show confirmation dialog asking for OTP code
    User->>Cl: Enter OTP from SMS
    Cl->>C: Respond to Auth Challenge: Send original JWT + OTP, include transaction ID in clientMetadata
    Activate C
    C->>VA: Invoke
    Activate VA
    VA->>VA: Check OTP and original JWT
    VA->>C: Ok: answer correct
    DeActivate VA
    C->>DA: Invoke
    Activate DA
    DA->>C: Issue tokens
    DeActivate DA
    C->>PT: Invoke
    Activate PT
    PT->>PT: Add transaction ID from clientMetadata to claims
    PT->>C: Ok
    DeActivate PT
    C->>Cl: Success: JWTs
    DeActivate C
    Cl->>B: Confirm transaction, pass new JWT
    Activate B
    B->>B: Verify JWT and included transaction ID claim
    B->>B: Execute transation
    B->>Cl: Ok
    DeActivate B
    Cl->>User: Show completion dialog
    Deactivate Cl
    Deactivate User