Generates a unique symmetric data key for client-side encryption. This operation returns a plaintext copy of the data key and a copy that is encrypted under a customer master key (CMK) that you specify. You can use the plaintext key to encrypt your data outside of AWS KMS and store the encrypted data key with the encrypted data.
generate_data_key returns a unique data key
for each request. The bytes in the plaintext key are not related to the
caller or the CMK.
To generate a data key, specify the symmetric CMK that will be used to
encrypt the data key. You cannot use an asymmetric CMK to generate data
keys. To get the type of your CMK, use the
describe_key operation. You must also specify the
length of the data key. Use either the KeySpec or NumberOfBytes
parameters (but not both). For 128-bit and 256-bit data keys, use the
KeySpec parameter.
To get only an encrypted copy of the data key, use
generate_data_key_without_plaintext.
To generate an asymmetric data key pair, use the
generate_data_key_pair or
generate_data_key_pair_without_plaintext
operation. To get a cryptographically secure random byte string, use
generate_random.
You can use the optional encryption context to add additional security
to the encryption operation. If you specify an EncryptionContext, you
must specify the same encryption context (a case-sensitive exact match)
when decrypting the encrypted data key. Otherwise, the request to
decrypt fails with an InvalidCiphertextException. For more
information, see Encryption Context
in the AWS Key Management Service Developer Guide.
The CMK that you use for this operation must be in a compatible key state. For details, see How Key State Affects Use of a Customer Master Key in the AWS Key Management Service Developer Guide.
How to use your data key
We recommend that you use the following pattern to encrypt data locally in your application. You can write your own code or use a client-side encryption library, such as the AWS Encryption SDK, the Amazon DynamoDB Encryption Client, or Amazon S3 client-side encryption to do these tasks for you.
To encrypt data outside of AWS KMS:
Use the generate_data_key operation to
get a data key.
Use the plaintext data key (in the Plaintext field of the
response) to encrypt your data outside of AWS KMS. Then erase the
plaintext data key from memory.
Store the encrypted data key (in the CiphertextBlob field of the
response) with the encrypted data.
To decrypt data outside of AWS KMS:
Use the decrypt operation to decrypt the encrypted
data key. The operation returns a plaintext copy of the data key.
Use the plaintext data key to decrypt data outside of AWS KMS, then erase the plaintext data key from memory.
Cross-account use: Yes. To perform this operation with a CMK in a
different AWS account, specify the key ARN or alias ARN in the value of
the KeyId parameter.
Required permissions: kms:GenerateDataKey (key policy)
Related operations:
decrypt
encrypt
generate_data_key_pair
generate_data_key_pair_without_plaintext
generate_data_key_without_plaintext
kms_generate_data_key(KeyId, EncryptionContext, NumberOfBytes, KeySpec,
GrantTokens)A list with the following syntax:
list(
CiphertextBlob = raw,
Plaintext = raw,
KeyId = "string"
)
[required] Identifies the symmetric CMK that encrypts the data key.
To specify a CMK, use its key ID, Amazon Resource Name (ARN), alias
name, or alias ARN. When using an alias name, prefix it with "alias/".
To specify a CMK in a different AWS account, you must use the key ARN or
alias ARN.
For example:
Key ID: 1234abcd-12ab-34cd-56ef-1234567890ab
Key ARN:
arn:aws:kms:us-east-2:111122223333:key/1234abcd-12ab-34cd-56ef-1234567890ab
Alias name: alias/ExampleAlias
Alias ARN: arn:aws:kms:us-east-2:111122223333:alias/ExampleAlias
To get the key ID and key ARN for a CMK, use
list_keys or describe_key. To
get the alias name and alias ARN, use
list_aliases.
Specifies the encryption context that will be used when encrypting the data key.
An encryption context is a collection of non-secret key-value pairs that represents additional authenticated data. When you use an encryption context to encrypt data, you must specify the same (an exact case-sensitive match) encryption context to decrypt the data. An encryption context is optional when encrypting with a symmetric CMK, but it is highly recommended.
For more information, see Encryption Context in the AWS Key Management Service Developer Guide.
Specifies the length of the data key in bytes. For example, use the
value 64 to generate a 512-bit data key (64 bytes is 512 bits). For
128-bit (16-byte) and 256-bit (32-byte) data keys, use the KeySpec
parameter.
You must specify either the KeySpec or the NumberOfBytes parameter
(but not both) in every generate_data_key
request.
Specifies the length of the data key. Use AES_128 to generate a
128-bit symmetric key, or AES_256 to generate a 256-bit symmetric key.
You must specify either the KeySpec or the NumberOfBytes parameter
(but not both) in every generate_data_key
request.
A list of grant tokens.
For more information, see Grant Tokens in the AWS Key Management Service Developer Guide.
svc$generate_data_key(
KeyId = "string",
EncryptionContext = list(
"string"
),
NumberOfBytes = 123,
KeySpec = "AES_256"|"AES_128",
GrantTokens = list(
"string"
)
)
if (FALSE) {
# The following example generates a 256-bit symmetric data encryption key
# (data key) in two formats. One is the unencrypted (plainext) data key,
# and the other is the data key encrypted with the specified customer
# master key (CMK).
svc$generate_data_key(
KeyId = "alias/ExampleAlias",
KeySpec = "AES_256"
)
}
Run the code above in your browser using DataLab