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Fundamentals

Encryption Key Management

On this page

  • Encryption Components
  • Rotate Encryption Keys Using mongosh
  • Supported Key Management Services
  • Reasons to Use a Remote KMS
  • Learn More

In this guide, you can learn how to manage your encryption keys with a Key Management System (KMS) in your Queryable Encryption enabled application.

Encryption Components

MongoDB uses the following components to perform Queryable Encryption:

  • Data Encryption Keys (DEKs)

  • Key Vault collections

  • Customer Master Keys (CMKs)

  • Key Management System (KMS)

Your Data Encryption Key is the key you use to encrypt the fields in your MongoDB documents. Your DEK is stored in a document in a MongoDB collection called the Key Vault collection.

Your Customer Master Key is the key you use to encrypt your Data Encryption Keys. MongoDB automatically encrypts Data Encryption Keys using the specified CMK during Data Encryption Key creation.

The CMK is the most sensitive key in Queryable Encryption. If your CMK is compromised, all of your encrypted data can be decrypted.

Use a Key Management System to store your Customer Master Key.

To learn more about the relationship between keys, see Keys and Key Vaults.

Important

Use a Remote Key Management Service Provider

Ensure you store your Customer Master Key (CMK) on a remote KMS.

To learn more about why you should use a remote KMS, see Reasons to Use a Remote KMS.

To view a list of all supported KMS providers, see the KMS Providers page.

Rotate Encryption Keys Using mongosh

You can rotate encryption keys using the KeyVault.rewrapManyDataKey() method. The rewrapManyDataKey method automatically decrypts multiple data keys and re-encrypts them using a specified Customer Master Key (CMK). It then updates the rotated keys in the key vault collection. This method allows you to rotate encryption keys based on two optional arguments:

  • A query filter document used to specify which keys to rotate. If no data key matches the given filter, no keys will be rotated. Omit the filter to rotate all keys in your key vault collection.

  • An object that represents a new CMK. Omit this object to rotate the data keys using their current CMKs.

The rewrapManyDataKey method has the following syntax:

let keyVault = db.getMongo().getKeyVault()
keyVault.rewrapManyDataKey(
   {
      "<Your custom filter>"
   },
   {
      provider: "<KMS provider>",
      masterKey: {
         "<dataKeyOpts Key>" : "<dataKeyOpts Value>"
      }
   }
)

Supported Key Management Services

Queryable Encryption supports the following Key Management System (KMS) providers:

  • Amazon Web Services KMS

  • Azure Key Vault

  • Google Cloud Platform KMS

  • Any KMIP Compliant Key Management System

  • Local Key Provider

To learn more about these providers, including diagrams that show how your application uses them to perform Queryable Encryption, see KMS Providers.

Reasons to Use a Remote KMS

Using a remote KMS to manage your Customer Master Key (CMK) has the following advantages over using your local filesystem to host the CMK:

  • Secure storage of the key with access auditing

  • Reduced risk of access permission issues

  • Availability and distribution of the key to remote clients

  • Automated key backup and recovery

  • Centralized encryption key lifecycle management

Additionally, for the following KMS providers, your KMS remotely encrypts and decrypts your Data Encryption Key, ensuring your Customer Master Key is never exposed to your Queryable Encryption enabled application:

  • Amazon Web Services KMS

  • Azure Key Vault

  • Google Cloud Platform KMS

Learn More

For tutorials detailing how to set up a Queryable Encryption enabled application with each of the supported KMS providers, see the following pages:

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Keys and Key Vaults