AWS Key Management Service | General

Question 1

What is AWS Key Management Service (KMS)?

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AWS Key Management Service | Security, Identity & Compliance

Answer 1

AWS KMS is a managed encryption service that enables you to easily encrypt your data. AWS KMS provides a highly available key storage, management, and auditing solution for you to encrypt your data across AWS services and within your own applications.

Question 2

Why should I use AWS KMS?

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AWS Key Management Service | Security, Identity & Compliance

Answer 2

If you are a developer who needs to encrypt data in your applications, you should use the AWS SDKs with AWS KMS support to easily use and protect encryption keys. If you’re an IT administrator looking for a scalable key management infrastructure to support your developers and their growing number of applications, you should use AWS KMS to reduce your licensing costs and operational burden. If you’re responsible for proving data security for regulatory or compliance purposes, you should use AWS KMS to verify that data is encrypted consistently across the applications where it is used and stored.

Question 3

How do I get started with AWS KMS?

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AWS Key Management Service | Security, Identity & Compliance

Answer 3

The easiest way is to get started using AWS KMS is to check the box to encrypt your data within supported AWS services and use the default keys that are created in your account for each service. If you want further controls over the management of these keys, you can create keys in AWS KMS and assign them to be used in the supported AWS services when creating encrypted resources as well as use them directly within your own applications. AWS KMS can be accessed from the “Encryption Keys” section of the AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) console for web-based access, and the AWS KMS Command Line Interface or AWS Software Development Kit for programmatic access. Visit the Getting Started page to learn more.

Question 4

In what Regions is KMS available?

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AWS Key Management Service | Security, Identity & Compliance

Answer 4

Availability is listed on our global Products and Services by Region page.

Question 5

What key management features are available in AWS KMS?

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AWS Key Management Service | Security, Identity & Compliance

Answer 5

You can perform the following key management functions in AWS KMS:

Create keys with a unique alias and description

Import your own keys

Define which IAM users and roles can manage keys

Define which IAM users and roles can use keys to encrypt and decrypt data

Choose to have AWS KMS automatically rotate your keys on an annual basis

Temporarily disable keys so they cannot be used by anyone

Re-enable disabled keys

Delete keys that you no longer use

Audit use of keys by inspecting logs in AWS CloudTrail

Question 6

How does AWS KMS work?

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AWS Key Management Service | Security, Identity & Compliance

Answer 6

AWS KMS allows you to centrally manage and securely store your keys. You can generate keys in KMS or import them from your key management infrastructure. These keys can be used from within your applications and supported AWS services to protect your data, but the key never leaves KMS AWS. You submit data to AWS KMS to be encrypted, or decrypted, under keys that you control. You set usage policies on these keys that determine which users can use them to encrypt and decrypt data. All requests to use these keys are logged in AWS CloudTrail so you can understand who used which key when.

Question 7

Where is my data encrypted if I use AWS KMS?

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AWS Key Management Service | Security, Identity & Compliance

Answer 7

You can use AWS KMS to help encrypt data locally in your own applications or have it encrypted within a supported AWS service. You can use an AWS SDK with AWS KMS support to do the encryption wherever your applications run. You can also request a supported AWS service to encrypt your data as it is being stored. AWS CloudTrail provides access logs to allow you to audit how your keys were used in either situation.

Question 8

Which AWS cloud services are integrated with AWS KMS?

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AWS Key Management Service | Security, Identity & Compliance

Answer 8

AWS Key Management Service is seamlessly integrated with several other AWS services to make encrypting data in those services as easy as checking a box and selecting the master key you want to use. See the Product Details page for the list of AWS services currently integrated with KMS. All use of your keys within integrated services appears in AWS CloudTrail logs. See the AWS KMS Developer’s Guide for more information on how integrated services use AWS KMS.

Question 9

How do AWS cloud services use my keys to encrypt data?

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AWS Key Management Service | Security, Identity & Compliance

Answer 9

AWS cloud services integrated with AWS KMS use a method called envelope encryption to protect your data. Envelope encryption is an optimized method for encrypting data that uses two different keys. A data key is generated and used by the AWS service to encrypt each piece of data or resource. The data key is encrypted under a master key that you define in AWS KMS. The encrypted data key is then stored by the AWS service. When you need your data decrypted by the AWS service, the encrypted data key is passed to AWS KMS and decrypted under the master key that was originally encrypted under so the service can then decrypt your data.

Question 10

Why use envelope encryption? Why not just send data to AWS KMS to encrypt directly?

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AWS Key Management Service | Security, Identity & Compliance

Answer 10

While AWS KMS does support sending data less than 4 KB to be encrypted, envelope encryption can offer significant performance benefits. When you encrypt data directly with KMS it must be transferred over the network. Envelope encryption reduces the network load for your application or AWS cloud service. Only the request and fulfillment of the data key through KMS must go over the network. Since the data key is always stored in encrypted form, it is easy and safe to distribute that key where you need it to go without worrying about it being exposed. Encrypted data keys are sent to AWS KMS and decrypted under master keys to ultimately allow you to decrypt your data. The data key is available directly in your application without having to send the entire block of data to AWS KMS and suffer network latency.

Question 11

What’s the difference between a key I create vs. default master keys created for me for use within AWS cloud services?

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AWS Key Management Service | Security, Identity & Compliance

Answer 11

You have the option of selecting a specific master key to use when you want an AWS service to encrypt data on your behalf. A default master key specific to each service is created in your account as a convenience the first time you try to create an encrypted resource. This key is managed by AWS KMS but you can always audit its use in AWS CloudTrail. You can alternately create a customer master key in AWS KMS that you can then use in your own applications or from within a supported AWS service. AWS will update the policies on default master keys as needed to enable new features in supported services automatically. AWS does not modify policies on keys you create.

Question 12

Why should I create a customer master key?

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AWS Key Management Service | Security, Identity & Compliance

Answer 12

Creating a key in AWS KMS gives you more control than you have with default service master keys. When you create a customer master key, you can choose to use key material generated by KMS on your behalf or import your own key material, define an alias, a description, and opt-in to have the key automatically rotated once per year if it backed by key material generated by KMS. You also can define permissions on the key to control who can use and manage the key. Management and usage activity related to the key is available for audit in AWS CloudTrail.

Question 13

Can I import keys into KMS?

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AWS Key Management Service | Security, Identity & Compliance

Answer 13

Yes. You can import a copy of your key from your own key management infrastructure to KMS and use it with any integrated AWS service or from within your own applications.

Question 14

When would I use an imported key?

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AWS Key Management Service | Security, Identity & Compliance

Answer 14

You can use an imported key to get greater control over the creation, lifecycle management, and durability of your key in KMS. Imported keys are designed to help you meet your compliance requirements which may include the ability to generate or maintain a secure copy of the key in your infrastructure, and the ability to delete the imported copy of the key on demand from AWS infrastructure once you no longer need the key.

Question 15

What type of keys can I import?

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AWS Key Management Service | Security, Identity & Compliance

Answer 15

You can import 256-bit symmetric keys.

Question 16

How is the key that I import into KMS protected in transit?

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AWS Key Management Service | Security, Identity & Compliance

Answer 16

During the import, your key must be wrapped by a KMS-provided public key using one of the two RSA PKCS#1 schemes. This ensures that your encrypted key can only be decrypted by KMS.

Question 17

What’s the difference between a key I import vs. a key generated for me by KMS?

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AWS Key Management Service | Security, Identity & Compliance

Answer 17

There are two main differences between a key that you import vs. a key created for you by KMS:

You must securely maintain a copy of your imported keys in your key management infrastructure so that you can re-import them at any time. AWS ensures the availability, security, and durability of keys generated by KMS on your behalf until you schedule the keys for deletion.

You may set an expiration period for an imported key to automatically delete the key from KMS after the expiration period. You may also delete an imported key on demand without deleting the underlying customer master key. Further, you can manually disable or delete a customer master key with an imported key at any time. A key generated by KMS can only be disabled or scheduled for deletion, it cannot have an expiration time placed on it.

Question 18

Can I rotate my keys?

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AWS Key Management Service | Security, Identity & Compliance

Answer 18

Yes. You can choose to have KMS automatically rotate keys generated by KMS on your behalf every year. Automatic key rotation is not supported for imported keys. If you choose to import keys to KMS, you can manually rotate them whenever you want.

Question 19

Do I have to re-encrypt my data after keys in AWS KMS are rotated?

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AWS Key Management Service | Security, Identity & Compliance

Answer 19

If you choose to have KMS automatically rotate keys generated by KMS on your behalf, you don’t have to re-encrypt your data. AWS KMS keeps previous versions of keys to use for decryption of data encrypted under an old version of a key. All new encryption requests against a key in AWS KMS are encrypted under the newest version of the key.

If you manually rotate your keys, you may have to re-encrypt your data depending on your application’s configuration.

Question 20

Can I delete a key from AWS KMS?

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AWS Key Management Service | Security, Identity & Compliance

Answer 20

Yes. You can schedule a customer master key and associated metadata that you created in KMS for deletion, with a configurable waiting period from 7 to 30 days. This waiting period allows you to verify the impact of deleting a key on your applications and users that depend on it. The default waiting period is 30 days. You can cancel the deletion during the waiting period. The key cannot be used if it is scheduled for deletion until you cancel the deletion during the waiting period. The key gets deleted at the end of the configurable waiting period if you don’t cancel the deletion. Once a key gets deleted, you can no longer use it. All data protected under a deleted master key is inaccessible.

For customer master keys with imported key material, you can delete the key material without deleting the customer master key id or metadata in two ways. First, you can delete your imported key material on demand without a waiting period. Second, at the time of importing the key material into the customer master key, you may define an expiration time for how long AWS can use your imported key material before it is deleted. You can re-import your key material into the customer master key if you need to use it again.

Question 21

What should I do if my imported key material has expired or I accidentally deleted it?

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AWS Key Management Service | Security, Identity & Compliance

Answer 21

You can re-import your copy of the key material with a valid expiration period to KMS under the original customer master key so it can be used.

Question 22

Can I be alerted that I need to re-import the key?

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AWS Key Management Service | Security, Identity & Compliance

Answer 22

Yes. Once you import your key to a customer master key, you will receive an Amazon CloudWatch Metric every few minutes that counts down the time to expiration of the imported key. You will also receive an Amazon CloudWatch Event once the imported key under your customer master key expires. You can build logic that acts on these metrics or events and automatically re-imports the key with a new expiration period to avoid an availability risk.

Question 23

Can I use AWS KMS to help manage encryption of data outside of AWS cloud services?

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AWS Key Management Service | Security, Identity & Compliance

Answer 23

Yes. AWS KMS is supported in AWS SDKs, AWS Encryption SDK, and the Amazon S3 Encryption Client to facilitate encryption of data within your own applications wherever they run. AWS SDK in the Java, Ruby, .NET, and PHP platforms support AWS KMS APIs. Visit the Developing on AWS website for more information.