getKeyVault()

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Compatibility

Syntax
Behavior
Example

MongoDB 5.0 is end of life as of October 2024. This version of the documentation is no longer supported. To upgrade your 5.0 deployment, see the MongoDB 6.0 upgrade procedures.

getKeyVault()

Returns the KeyVault object for the current database connection. The KeyVault object supports data encryption key management for Client-side field level encryption.

Returns:	The `KeyVault` object for current database connection.

Compatibility

This command is available in deployments hosted in the following environments:

MongoDB Atlas: The fully managed service for MongoDB deployments in the cloud

MongoDB Enterprise: The subscription-based, self-managed version of MongoDB
MongoDB Community: The source-available, free-to-use, and self-managed version of MongoDB

Syntax

getKeyVault() has the following syntax:

keyVault = db.getMongo().getKeyVault();

Use the KeyVault object to access the following data encryption key management methods:

Behavior

Requires Configuring Client-Side Field Level Encryption on Database Connection

The following example uses a locally managed key for the client-side field level encryption configuration.

The mongo client-side field level encryption methods require a database connection with client-side field level encryption enabled. If the current database connection was not initiated with client-side field level encryption enabled, either:

Use the Mongo() constructor from the mongo shell to establish a connection with the required client-side field level encryption options. The Mongo() method supports the following Key Management Service (KMS) providers for Customer Master Key (CMK) management:
or
Use the mongo shell command line options to establish a connection with the required options. The command line options only support the Amazon Web Services KMS provider for CMK management.

Unique Partial Index on Key Vault

The getKeyVault() method automatically creates a unique index on the keyAltNames field with a partial index filter for only documents where keyAltNames exists. getKeyVault() creates this index in the key vault collection. This prevents any two data encryption keys in the same key vault from having the same key alternative name and therefore avoids ambiguity around which data encryption key is appropriate for encryption/decryption.

Warning

Do not drop the unique index created by getKeyVault(). Client-side field level encryption operations depend on server-enforced uniqueness of keyAltNames. Removing the index may lead to unexpected or unpredictable behavior.

Example

The following example uses a locally managed key for the client-side field level encryption configuration.

Configuring client-side field level encryption for a locally managed key requires specifying a base64-encoded 96-byte string with no line breaks. The following operation generates a key that meets the stated requirements and loads it into the mongo shell:

TEST_LOCAL_KEY=$(echo "$(head -c 96 /dev/urandom | base64 | tr -d '\n')")
mongosh --nodb --shell --eval "var TEST_LOCAL_KEY='$TEST_LOCAL_KEY'"

Create the client-side field level encryption object using the generated local key string:

var ClientSideFieldLevelEncryptionOptions = {
  "keyVaultNamespace" : "encryption.__dataKeys",
  "kmsProviders" : {
    "local" : {
      "key" : BinData(0, TEST_LOCAL_KEY)
    }
  }
}

Use the Mongo() constructor to create a database connection with the client-side field level encryption options. Replace the mongodb://myMongo.example.net URI with the connection string URI of the target cluster.

encryptedClient = Mongo(
  "mongodb://myMongo.example.net:27017/?replSetName=myMongo",
  ClientSideFieldLevelEncryptionOptions
)

Use the getKeyVault() method to retrieve the key vault object:

keyVault = encryptedClient.getKeyVault()

For complete documentation on initiating MongoDB connections with client-side field level encryption enabled, see Mongo().

Back

getClientEncryption

KeyVault.addKeyAlternateName