Restricting access to an AWS Lambda function URL origin - Amazon CloudFront
Creating a new OACAdvanced settings for origin access control

Restricting access to an AWS Lambda function URL origin

CloudFront provides origin access control (OAC) for restricting access to a Lambda function URL origin.

Creating a new OAC

Complete the steps described in the following topics to set up a new OAC in CloudFront.

Note

If you use PUT or POST methods with your Lambda function URL, your user must provide a signed payload to CloudFront. Lambda doesn't support unsigned payloads.

Prerequisites

Before you create and set up OAC, you must have a CloudFront distribution with a Lambda function URL as the origin. For more information, see Use a Lambda function URL.

Giving the OAC permission to access the Lambda function URL

Before you create an OAC or set it up in a CloudFront distribution, make sure the OAC has permission to access the Lambda function URL. Do this after you create a CloudFront distribution, but before you add the OAC to the Lambda function URL in the distribution configuration.

Note

To update the IAM policy for the Lambda function URL, you must use the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI). Editing the IAM policy in the Lambda console isn't supported at this time.

The following AWS CLI command grants the CloudFront service principal (cloudfront.amazonaws.com) access to your Lambda function URL. The Condition element in the policy allows CloudFront to access Lambda only when the request is on behalf of the CloudFront distribution that contains the Lambda function URL.

Example : AWS CLI command to update a policy to allow read-only access to a CloudFront OAC

The following AWS CLI command allows the CloudFront distribution (E1PDK09ESKHJWT) access your Lambda FUNCTION_URL_NAME.

aws lambda add-permission \
--statement-id "AllowCloudFrontServicePrincipal" \
--action "lambda:InvokeFunctionUrl" \
--principal "cloudfront.amazonaws.com" \
--source-arn "arn:aws:cloudfront::123456789012:distribution/E1PDK09ESKHJWT" \
--function-name FUNCTION_URL_NAME
Note

If you create a distribution and it doesn't have permission to your Lambda function URL, you can choose Copy CLI command from the CloudFront console, and then enter this command from your command line terminal. For more information, see Granting function access to AWS services in the AWS Lambda Developer Guide.

Creating the OAC

To create an OAC, you can use the AWS Management Console, AWS CloudFormation, the AWS CLI, or the CloudFront API.

Console
To create an OAC

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the CloudFront console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/v4/home.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Origin access.

  3. Choose Create control setting.

  4. On the Create new OAC form, do the following:

    1. Enter a Name and (optionally) a Description for the OAC.

    2. For Signing behavior, we recommend that you leave the default setting (Sign requests (recommended)). For more information, see Advanced settings for origin access control.

  5. For Origin type, choose Lambda.

  6. Choose Create.

    Tip

    After you create the OAC, make note of the Name. You need this in the following procedure.

To add an origin access control to a Lambda function URL in a distribution

  1. Open the CloudFront console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/v4/home.

  2. Choose a distribution with a Lambda function URL that you want to add the OAC to, then choose the Origins tab.

  3. Select the Lambda function URL that you want to add the OAC to, and then choose Edit.

  4. Select HTTPS only for your origin's Protocol.

  5. From the Origin access control dropdown, choose the OAC name that you want to use.

  6. Choose Save changes.

The distribution starts deploying to all of the CloudFront edge locations. When an edge location receives the new configuration, it signs all requests that it sends to the Lambda function URL.

CloudFormation

To create an OAC with AWS CloudFormation, use the AWS::CloudFront::OriginAccessControl resource type. The following example shows the AWS CloudFormation template syntax, in YAML format, for creating an OAC.

Type: AWS::CloudFront::OriginAccessControl
Properties: 
  OriginAccessControlConfig: 
      Description: An optional description for the origin access control
      Name: ExampleOAC
      OriginAccessControlOriginType: lambda
      SigningBehavior: always
      SigningProtocol: sigv4

For more information, see AWS::CloudFront::OriginAccessControl in the AWS CloudFormation User Guide.

CLI

To create an origin access control with the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI), use the aws cloudfront create-origin-access-control command. You can use an input file to provide the input parameters for the command, rather than specifying each individual parameter as command line input.

To create an origin access control (CLI with input file)

  1. Use the following command to create a file that's named origin-access-control.yaml. This file contains all of the input parameters for the create-origin-access-control command.

    
aws cloudfront create-origin-access-control --generate-cli-skeleton yaml-input > origin-access-control.yaml

  2. Open the origin-access-control.yaml file that you just created. Edit the file to add a name for the OAC, a description (optional), and change the SigningBehavior to always. Then save the file.

    For information about other OAC settings, see Advanced settings for origin access control.

  3. Use the following command to create the origin access control using the input parameters from the origin-access-control.yaml file.

    
aws cloudfront create-origin-access-control --cli-input-yaml file://origin-access-control.yaml

    Make note of the Id value in the command output. You need it to add the OAC to a Lambda function URL in a CloudFront distribution.

To attach an OAC to a Lambda function URL in an existing distribution (CLI with input file)

  1. Use the following command to save the distribution configuration for the CloudFront distribution that you want to add the OAC to. The distribution must have a Lambda function URL as the origin.

    
aws cloudfront get-distribution-config --id <CloudFront distribution ID> --output yaml > dist-config.yaml

  2. Open the file that's named dist-config.yaml that you just created. Edit the file, making the following changes:

    • In the Origins object, add the OAC's ID to the field that's named OriginAccessControlId.

    • Remove the value from the field that's named OriginAccessIdentity, if one exists.

    • Rename the ETag field to IfMatch, but don't change the field's value.

    Save the file when finished.

  3. Use the following command to update the distribution to use the origin access control.

    
aws cloudfront update-distribution --id <CloudFront distribution ID> --cli-input-yaml file://dist-config.yaml

The distribution starts deploying to all of the CloudFront edge locations. When an edge location receives the new configuration, it signs all requests that it sends to the Lambda function URL.

API

To create an OAC with the CloudFront API, use CreateOriginAccessControl. For more information about the fields that you specify in this API call, see the API reference documentation for your AWS SDK or other API client.

After you create an OAC you can attach it to a Lambda function URL in a distribution, using one of the following API calls:

For both of these API calls, provide the OAC ID in the OriginAccessControlId field, inside an origin. For more information about the other fields that you specify in these API calls, see and the API reference documentation for your AWS SDK or other API client.

Advanced settings for origin access control

The CloudFront OAC feature includes advanced settings that are intended only for specific use cases. Use the recommended settings unless you have a specific need for the advanced settings.

OAC contains a setting named Signing behavior (in the console), or SigningBehavior (in the API, CLI, and AWS CloudFormation). This setting provides the following options:

Always sign origin requests (recommended setting)

We recommend using this setting, named Sign requests (recommended) in the console, or always in the API, CLI, and AWS CloudFormation. With this setting, CloudFront always signs all requests that it sends to the Lambda function URL.

Never sign origin requests

This setting is named Do not sign requests in the console, or never in the API, CLI, and AWS CloudFormation. Use this setting to turn off OAC for all origins in all distributions that use this OAC. This can save time and effort compared to removing an OAC from all origins and distributions that use it, one by one. With this setting, CloudFront doesn't sign any requests that it sends to the Lambda function URL.

Warning

To use this setting, the Lambda function URL must be publicly accessible. If you use this setting with a Lambda function URL that's not publicly accessible, CloudFront can't access the origin. The Lambda function URL returns errors to CloudFront and CloudFront passes those errors on to viewers. For more information, see the example Lambda policy for Policies and Permissions in Lambda in the AWS Lambda User Guide.

Don't override the viewer (client) Authorization header

This setting is named Do not override authorization header in the console, or no-override in the API, CLI, and AWS CloudFormation. Use this setting when you want CloudFront to sign origin requests only when the corresponding viewer request does not include an Authorization header. With this setting, CloudFront passes on the Authorization header from the viewer request when one is present, but signs the origin request (adding its own Authorization header) when the viewer request doesn't include an Authorization header.

Warning

To pass along the Authorization header from the viewer request, you must add the Authorization header to a cache policy for all cache behaviors that use Lambda function URLs associated with this origin access control.