Authentication and authorization in APIs are essential components for the security of applications and services. In the context of Amazon API Gateway and AWS Lambda, these security measures are implemented by configuring security policies in API Gateway. This article will cover this configuration in detail.
What is API Gateway?
API Gateway is a managed service that makes it easy for developers to create, publish, maintain, monitor, and secure APIs at scale. It acts as a "gateway" for applications that access data, business logic, or functionality from your backends, whether running on AWS Lambda, any web application, or on physical or virtual servers.
What is AWS Lambda?
AWS Lambda is a service that allows developers to run code without provisioning or managing servers. With Lambda, you can run code for virtually any type of application or backend service, all with zero administration. Just upload your code and Lambda takes care of everything needed to run and scale your code with high availability.
Authentication and Authorization in APIs
Authentication is the process of verifying the identity of a user, device or system. It's essentially the answer to the question, "Who are you?" Authorization, on the other hand, is the process of checking what a user, device, or system is allowed to do. It's the answer to the question, "What are you allowed to do?"
Configuring Security Policies in API Gateway
Configuring security policies in API Gateway involves defining authorization policies to ensure that only authenticated clients can access your APIs. This is done by creating an Identity and Access Management (IAM) authorization policy that defines who is authorized to perform actions on specific resources.
These authorization policies are attached to AWS Lambda functions to ensure that only API Gateway can invoke the function. Authentication is typically implemented using JWT tokens (JSON Web Tokens), which are compact, secure, and self-contained. They contain all the information necessary to authenticate a user, eliminating the need for additional database queries.
In addition, API Gateway also supports the use of API keys for access control. API keys are tokens that a client must send in the header of an HTTP request to access your APIs. You can use API keys in conjunction with authorization policies to add an additional layer of security to your APIs.
In summary, configuring security policies in API Gateway and implementing appropriate authentication and authorization in your APIs are best practices to ensure the security of your applications and services. By doing so, you can protect your resources from unauthorized access and ensure that only authenticated clients can access your APIs.
