Serving Private Content

To configure CloudFront to serve private content, do the following tasks:

1. (Optional but recommended) Require your users to access your content only through CloudFront. The method that you use depends on whether you’re using Amazon S3 or custom origins:

   Amazon S3

   See Restricting Access to Amazon S3 Content by Using an Origin Access Identity.

   Custom origin

   See Restricting Access to Files on Custom Origins.

   Custom origins include Amazon EC2, Amazon S3 buckets configured as website endpoints, Elastic Load Balancing, and your own HTTP web servers.

2. Specify the AWS accounts that you want to use to create signed URLs or signed cookies.

   see Specifying the AWS Accounts That Can Create Signed URLs and Signed Cookies (Trusted Signers).

3. Write your application to respond to requests from authorized users either with signed URLs or with Set-Cookie headers that set signed cookies. Follow the steps in one of the following topics:
   • Using Signed URLs
   • Using Signed Cookies
   • If you’re not sure which method to use, seeChoosing Between Signed URLs and Signed Cookies.