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Using an ALB behind Amazon CloudFront and Using a Custom HTTP Header to Control Access

In this hands-on lab you will work on implementing a more secure web application architecture by leveraging the following AWS services to further restrict public access: Amazon CloudFront, Application Load Balancer (ALB), and Amazon EC2. You will work with the above services in order to implement a new CDN in front of an internet-facing ALB to improve performance. You will also leverage the ability to pass custom headers to the origin server (the ALB) to restrict access to the hosted web application. The ALB will only allow traffic that contains the secret HTTP header value, which allows you to drop all traffic that is sent directly to the ALB itself.

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Lab platform
Lab Info
Level
Advanced
Last updated
Sep 23, 2025
Duration
45m

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Table of Contents
  1. Challenge

    Create the CloudFront Distribution

    Create a new CloudFront distribution, using the existing Application Load Balancer (ALB) as the origin server.

    Once the distribution is deployed, test that you can access the web application through it.

  2. Challenge

    Update the CloudFront Distribution to Contain the HTTP Header

    After verified to be working, you now need to edit the distribution to add a custom header to all origin server calls. Below is the information:

    • Header Name: x-Custom-Header
    • Header Value: random string of your choice

    NOTE: Be sure to copy the Header Value for later

  3. Challenge

    Update the ALB Listener Rules

    Add a new rule to the ALB listener to restrict access to calls that only contain the X-Custom-Secret HTTP header with the correct header value that you set previously.

    Ensure this rule is processed first!

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