Securing private docs with CloudFront & Lambda@Edge
In a previous article, we looked at a method of restricting access to a CloudFront distribution with the use of a CloudFront private key that could sign cookies granting access to private files or even a static website.
With AWS Lambda@Edge, we can remove a few of the steps in that article and replace them with a Lambda function that runs on each of the CloudFront edge nodes that will handle authenticating users and protecting a private S3 bucket that contains our internal static site or docs.
Step 1. The Bucket
To begin, we’re going to create an S3 bucket that has a “private” access control list (ACL). The ACL is very important as it prevents users from accessing the files inside of it without passing through our CloudFront distribution (and thus Lambda function).
NB: The below example is for eu-west-1, so you may need to update the LocationConstraint.
aws s3api create-bucket --bucket jsherz-com-docs-test \
--acl private \
--create-bucket-configuration LocationConstraint=eu-west-1
Our next step is to create a CloudFront origin access identity. This can be assigned to a CloudFront distribution and then used in an S3 bucket policy to allow CloudFront to serve the bucket’s files even though they’re private.
aws cloudfront create-cloud-front-origin-access-identity \
--cloud-front-origin-access-identity-config \
CallerReference='Private docs',Comment='Private docs'
After we’ve created that, note down the canonical user ID (called S3CanonicalUserId in the response) and then adapt the following command to set our bucket’s policy:
aws s3api put-bucket-policy --bucket jsherz-com-docs-test \
--policy '{
"Version":"2012-10-17",
"Id":"PolicyForCloudFrontPrivateContent",
"Statement":[
{
"Sid": "Grant a CloudFront Origin Identity access to support private content",
"Effect": "Allow",
"Principal": {"CanonicalUser":"......"},
"Action": "s3:GetObject",
"Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::jsherz-com-docs-test/*"
}
]
}'
For more information about the origin access identity and the above policy, see:
- Using an Origin Access Identity to Restrict Access to Your Amazon S3 Content
- Granting Permission to an Amazon CloudFront Origin Identity
Step 2. The Lambda Function
Now that we’ve set up our bucket & origin access identity, we can create the Lambda function that will authenticate users. In this example, we’re going to use a static / hard-coded list of users and basic auth to identify them. For a more advanced setup, you could authenticate the user against an external source (e.g. database, LDAP) and then issue them with a stateless session token like a JSON Web Token.
You can view the full source code to this Lambda function in its git repository.
Begin by creating an IAM role to use with the Lambda function:
aws iam create-role --role authenticate-docs \
--assume-role-policy-document '{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": {
"Effect": "Allow",
"Principal": {"Service": [
"lambda.amazonaws.com",
"edgelambda.amazonaws.com"
]},
"Action": "sts:AssumeRole"
}
}'
aws iam put-role-policy --role-name authenticate-docs \
--policy-name AllowPushingLogsToCloudWatch \
--policy-document '{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": [
{
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": [
"logs:CreateLogGroup",
"logs:CreateLogStream",
"logs:PutLogEvents"
],
"Resource": [
"arn:aws:logs:*:*:*"
]
}
]
}'
With the role created, we can proceed to make the Lambda function itself. Swap
out the 000000000000 AWS account ID for your own when executing this command.
NB: The Lambda function must be created in North Virginia (us-east-1) to be used with Lambda@Edge / CloudFront.
wget https://github.com/jSherz/lambda-at-edge-basic-auth/releases/download/v1.0/lambda-at-edge-basic-auth.zip
aws lambda create-function \
--function-name authenticate-docs \
--region us-east-1 \
--zip-file fileb://lambda-at-edge-basic-auth.zip \
--runtime nodejs6.10 \
--handler index.handler \
--role arn:aws:iam::000000000000:role/authenticate-docs
To use the Lambda function with CloudFront, we must publish a version. Every time you update the function, you must publish a new version and then update your CloudFront distribution(s).
aws lambda publish-version --region us-east-1 \
--function-name authenticate-docs
OK! We’re getting closer. Last step (I promise), CloudFront.
Step 3. The CloudFront Distribution
This is a bit of a lengthy command, but we’ve got a lot of settings to go through. If you prefer, you can create the CloudFront distribution through the AWS console. The key parts are the “Origins” section that identifies that we want to use our CloudFront origin access identity with the S3 bucket and also the “LambdaFunctionAssociations” that ensures requests are authenticated with our Lambda function.
aws cloudfront create-distribution \
--distribution-config '{
"CallerReference": "Private docs",
"Aliases": {
"Quantity": 0
},
"DefaultRootObject": "index.html",
"Origins": {
"Quantity": 1,
"Items": [
{
"S3OriginConfig": {
"OriginAccessIdentity": "origin-access-identity/cloudfront/ABC123ABC123"
},
"OriginPath": "",
"CustomHeaders": {
"Quantity": 0
},
"Id": "s3",
"DomainName": "jsherz-com-docs-test.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com"
}
]
},
"DefaultCacheBehavior": {
"FieldLevelEncryptionId": "",
"TrustedSigners": {
"Enabled": false,
"Quantity": 0
},
"LambdaFunctionAssociations": {
"Quantity": 1,
"Items": [
{
"LambdaFunctionARN": "arn:aws:lambda:us-east-1:000000000000:function:authenticate-docs:1",
"EventType": "viewer-request"
}
]
},
"TargetOriginId": "s3",
"ViewerProtocolPolicy": "redirect-to-https",
"ForwardedValues": {
"Headers": {
"Quantity": 0
},
"Cookies": {
"Forward": "none"
},
"QueryStringCacheKeys": {
"Quantity": 0
},
"QueryString": false
},
"MaxTTL": 86400,
"SmoothStreaming": false,
"DefaultTTL": 3600,
"AllowedMethods": {
"Items": [
"HEAD",
"GET",
"OPTIONS"
],
"CachedMethods": {
"Items": [
"HEAD",
"GET"
],
"Quantity": 2
},
"Quantity": 3
},
"MinTTL": 0,
"Compress": false
},
"CacheBehaviors": {
"Quantity": 0
},
"CustomErrorResponses": {
"Quantity": 0
},
"Comment": "Private docs",
"Logging": {
"Enabled": false,
"IncludeCookies": false,
"Bucket": "",
"Prefix": ""
},
"PriceClass": "PriceClass_200",
"Enabled": true,
"ViewerCertificate": {
"CloudFrontDefaultCertificate": true,
"MinimumProtocolVersion": "TLSv1.1_2016",
"CertificateSource": "cloudfront"
},
"Restrictions": {
"GeoRestriction": {
"RestrictionType": "none",
"Quantity": 0
}
},
"HttpVersion": "http2",
"IsIPV6Enabled": true
}'
Once the CloudFront distribution has been created, you can visit it and check that the authentication is working as you expect. A demo can be seen at: https://dnks3lqae48yt.cloudfront.net. See the Lambda code for some valid users.
Caveats
-
The Lambda function must be published to a specific version for use with CloudFront. In the above example, we used the version 1 specified by “:1” in the LambdaFunctionAssociations above. As you update the Lambda function, ensure you publish the latest version and update the CloudFront distribution.
-
Before uploading your docs or internal static site, check that you can’t access the bucket directly and that requests to the CloudFront distribution are being authenticated.
-
If creating the CloudFront distribution through the console, ensure that you set “Restrict Viewer Access” to “No” in the cache behaviour settings.
-
Ensure the hostname you give for the S3 bucket includes the region (see above for a working example).
-
When testing the distribution is setup correctly, upload an index.html file to the S3 bucket or you may see an “Access Denied” error.
That’s it!
I hope that you managed to follow along and get everything working (or if you chose not to that the examples were clear enough). Contributions to the Lambda function are welcome - including security reviews!
Learning AWS' CDK in TypeScript? Check out my course on Udemy.