Transit secrets engine (API)
Last updated
Last updated
This is the API documentation for the Vault Transit secrets engine. For general information about the usage and operation of the Transit secrets engine, please see the transit documentation.
This documentation assumes the transit secrets engine is enabled at the /transit path in Vault. Since it is possible to enable secrets engines at any location, please update your API calls accordingly.
This endpoint creates a new named encryption key of the specified type. The values set here cannot be changed after key creation.
| Method | Path |
|---|---|
name (string: <required>) – Specifies the name of the encryption key to create. This is specified as part of the URL.
convergent_encryption (bool: false) – If enabled, the key will support convergent encryption, where the same plaintext creates the same ciphertext. This requires derived to be set to true. When enabled, each encryption(/decryption/rewrap/datakey) operation will derive a nonce value rather than randomly generate it.
derived (bool: false) – Specifies if key derivation is to be used. If enabled, all encrypt/decrypt requests to this named key must provide a context which is used for key derivation.
exportable (bool: false) - Enables keys to be exportable. This allows for all the valid keys in the key ring to be exported. Once set, this cannot be disabled.
allow_plaintext_backup (bool: false) - If set, enables taking backup of named key in the plaintext format. Once set, this cannot be disabled.
type (string: "aes256-gcm96") – Specifies the type of key to create. The currently-supported types are:
aes128-gcm96 – AES-128 wrapped with GCM using a 96-bit nonce size AEAD (symmetric, supports derivation and convergent encryption)
aes256-gcm96 – AES-256 wrapped with GCM using a 96-bit nonce size AEAD (symmetric, supports derivation and convergent encryption, default)
chacha20-poly1305 – ChaCha20-Poly1305 AEAD (symmetric, supports derivation and convergent encryption)
ed25519 – ED25519 (asymmetric, supports derivation). When using derivation, a sign operation with the same context will derive the same key and signature; this is a signing analogue to convergent_encryption.
ecdsa-p256 – ECDSA using the P-256 elliptic curve (asymmetric)
ecdsa-p384 – ECDSA using the P-384 elliptic curve (asymmetric)
ecdsa-p521 – ECDSA using the P-521 elliptic curve (asymmetric)
rsa-2048 - RSA with bit size of 2048 (asymmetric)
rsa-3072 - RSA with bit size of 3072 (asymmetric)
rsa-4096 - RSA with bit size of 4096 (asymmetric)
hmac - HMAC (HMAC generation, verification)
managed_key - External key configured via the Managed Keys feature (enterprise only)
Note: In FIPS 140-2 mode, the following algorithms are not certified and thus should not be used: chacha20-poly1305 and ed25519.
Note: All key types support HMAC through the use of a second randomly generated key created key creation time or rotation. The HMAC key type only supports HMAC, and behaves identically to other algorithms with respect to the HMAC operations but supports key import. By default, the HMAC key type uses a 256-bit key.
Note: When key type is managed_key, either the managed_key_name or managed_key_id parameter must be specified.
key_size (int: "0", optional) - The key size in bytes for algorithms that allow variable key sizes. Currently only applicable to HMAC, where it must be between 32 and 512 bytes.
auto_rotate_period (duration: "0", optional) – The period at which this key should be rotated automatically. Setting this to "0" (the default) will disable automatic key rotation. This value cannot be shorter than one hour. Uses duration format strings.
managed_key_name (string: "") - The name of the managed key to use for this transit key.
managed_key_id (string: "") - The UUID of the managed key to use for this transit key.
This endpoint imports existing key material into a new transit-managed encryption key. To import key material into an existing key, see the import_version/ endpoint.
This supports one of two forms:
Private/Symmetric Key import, requiring the ciphertext, hash_function parameters be set (and automatically deriving the public key), or
Public Key-only import, restricting the operations that can be done with this key, and requiring only the public_key parameter.
The remaining parameters (including name, type, allow_rotation, derived, context, exportable, allow_plaintext_backup, and auto_rotate_period) remain the same across both versions of this call.
name (string: <required>) – Specifies the name of the encryption key to create. This is specified as part of the URL.
ciphertext (string: <required>) - A base64-encoded string that contains two values: an ephemeral 256-bit AES key wrapped using the wrapping key returned by Vault and the encryption of the import key material under the provided AES key. The wrapped AES key should be the first 512 bytes of the ciphertext, and the encrypted key material should be the remaining bytes. See the BYOK section of the Transit secrets engine documentation for more information on constructing the ciphertext. If public_key is set, this field is not required.
hash_function (string: "SHA256") - The hash function used for the RSA-OAEP step of creating the ciphertext. Supported hash functions are: SHA1, SHA224, SHA256, SHA384, and SHA512. If not specified, the hash function defaults to SHA256.
type (string: <required>) – Specifies the type of key to create. The currently-supported types are:
aes128-gcm96 – AES-128 wrapped with GCM using a 96-bit nonce size AEAD (symmetric, supports derivation and convergent encryption)
aes256-gcm96 – AES-256 wrapped with GCM using a 96-bit nonce size AEAD (symmetric, supports derivation and convergent encryption, default)
chacha20-poly1305 – ChaCha20-Poly1305 AEAD (symmetric, supports derivation and convergent encryption)
ed25519 – ED25519 (asymmetric, supports derivation). When using derivation, a sign operation with the same context will derive the same key and signature; this is a signing analogue to convergent_encryption.
ecdsa-p256 – ECDSA using the P-256 elliptic curve (asymmetric)
ecdsa-p384 – ECDSA using the P-384 elliptic curve (asymmetric)
ecdsa-p521 – ECDSA using the P-521 elliptic curve (asymmetric)
rsa-2048 - RSA with bit size of 2048 (asymmetric)
rsa-3072 - RSA with bit size of 3072 (asymmetric)
rsa-4096 - RSA with bit size of 4096 (asymmetric)
public_key (string: "", optional) - A plaintext PEM public key to be imported. This limits the operations available under this key to verification and encryption, depending on the key type and algorithm, as no private key is available.
allow_rotation (bool: false) - If set, the imported key can be rotated within Vault by using the rotate endpoint.
NOTE: Once an imported key is rotated within Vault, it will no longer support importing key material with the import_version endpoint.
derived (bool: false) – Specifies if key derivation is to be used. If enabled, all encrypt/decrypt requests to this named key must provide a context which is used for key derivation.
context (string: "") - A base64-encoded string providing a context for key derivation. Required if derived is set to true.
exportable (bool: false) - Enables keys to be exportable. This allows for all the valid keys in the key ring to be exported. Once set, this cannot be disabled.
allow_plaintext_backup (bool: false) - If set, enables taking backup of named key in the plaintext format. Once set, this cannot be disabled.
auto_rotate_period (duration: "0", optional) – The period at which this key should be rotated automatically. Setting this to "0" (the default) will disable automatic key rotation. This value cannot be shorter than one hour.
This endpoint imports new key material into an existing imported key.
See description and note in Import Key above about importing public and private keys.
Notably, using this method, a private key matching a public key can be imported at a later date.
Note: Keys whose material was generated by Vault do not support importing key material. Only keys that were previously imported into Vault can import new key material from an external source.
name (string: <required>) – Specifies the name of the encryption key to create. This is specified as part of the URL.
ciphertext (string: <required>) - A base64-encoded string that contains two values: an ephemeral 256-bit AES key wrapped using the wrapping key returned by Vault and the encryption of the import key material under the provided AES key. The wrapped AES key should be the first 512 bytes of the ciphertext, and the encrypted key material should be the remaining bytes. See the BYOK section of the Transit secrets engine documentation for more information on constructing the ciphertext.
hash_function (string: "SHA256") - The hash function used for the RSA-OAEP step of creating the ciphertext. Supported hash functions are: SHA1, SHA224, SHA256, SHA384, and SHA512. If not specified, the hash function defaults to SHA256.
public_key (string: "", optional) - A plaintext PEM public key to be imported. This limits the operations available under this key to verification and encryption, depending on the key type and algorithm, as no private key is available.
version (int, optional) - Key version to be updated, if left empty, a new version will be created unless a private key is specified and the 'Latest' key is missing a private key.
This endpoint is used to retrieve the wrapping key to use for importing keys. The returned key will be a 4096-bit RSA public key.
This endpoint returns information about a named encryption key. The keys object shows the creation time of each key version; the values are not the keys themselves. Depending on the type of key, different information may be returned, e.g. an asymmetric key will return its public key in a standard format for the type.
name (string: <required>) – Specifies the name of the encryption key to read. This is specified as part of the URL.
The keys attribute lists each version of the key, and the time that key was created as seconds since the Unix epoch. The sample response shows a key that was created on September 22, 2015 7:50:12 PM GMT, and has not been rotated.
The fields supports_encryption, supports_decryption, supports_derivation and supports_signing are derived from the type of the key, and indicate which operations may be performed with it.
This endpoint returns a list of keys. Only the key names are returned (not the actual keys themselves).
This endpoint deletes a named encryption key. It will no longer be possible to decrypt any data encrypted with the named key. Because this is a potentially catastrophic operation, the deletion_allowed tunable must be set in the key's /config endpoint.
name (string: <required>) – Specifies the name of the encryption key to delete. This is specified as part of the URL.
This endpoint allows tuning configuration values for a given key. (These values are returned during a read operation on the named key.)
min_decryption_version (int: 0) – Specifies the minimum version of ciphertext allowed to be decrypted. Adjusting this as part of a key rotation policy can prevent old copies of ciphertext from being decrypted, should they fall into the wrong hands. For signatures, this value controls the minimum version of signature that can be verified against. For HMACs, this controls the minimum version of a key allowed to be used as the key for verification.
min_encryption_version (int: 0) – Specifies the minimum version of the key that can be used to encrypt plaintext, sign payloads, or generate HMACs. Must be 0 (which will use the latest version) or a value greater or equal to min_decryption_version.
deletion_allowed (bool: false) - Specifies if the key is allowed to be deleted.
exportable (bool: false) - Enables keys to be exportable. This allows for all the valid keys in the key ring to be exported. Once set, this cannot be disabled.
allow_plaintext_backup (bool: false) - If set, enables taking backup of named key in the plaintext format. Once set, this cannot be disabled.
auto_rotate_period (duration: "", optional) – The period at which this key should be rotated automatically. Setting this to "0" will disable automatic key rotation. This value cannot be shorter than one hour. When no value is provided, the period remains unchanged. Uses duration format strings.
This endpoint rotates the version of the named key. After rotation, new plaintext requests will be encrypted with the new version of the key. To upgrade ciphertext to be encrypted with the latest version of the key, use the rewrap endpoint. This is only supported with keys that support encryption and decryption operations.
For algorithms with a configurable key size, the rotated key will use the same key size as the previous version.
Note: For imported keys, rotation is only supported if the allow_rotation field was set to true on import. Once an imported key is rotated within Vault, it will not support further import operations.
managed_key_name (string: "") - The name of the managed key to use for this transit key.
managed_key_id (string: "") - The UUID of the managed key to use for this transit key.
Note: If the key to be rotated is of type managed_key, either the managed_key_name or the managed_key_id for the new key must be provided.
This endpoint signs a CSR with the :name key, allowing the key material never to leave Transit. If no template CSR is specified, an empty CSR is signed, otherwise, a copy of the specified CSR with key material replaced with this key material is signed.
name (string: <required>) - Specifies the name of the key to sign the CSR with. This is specified as part of the URL.
version (string: "") - Specifies the version of the CSR key to use for signing. If the version is set to latest or is not set, the current key will be returned.
csr (string: "") - Optional PEM-encoded CSR template to use as a basis for the new CSR signed by this key. If not set, an empty CSR is used.
This endpoint sets the certificate chain associated with the :name key, allowing the key material never to leave Transit and for certificates to be tracked in a single mount. Note that this allows updating and rotating the chain as it will overwrite any previously set certificate chain.
name (string: <required>) - Specifies the name of the key to import the certificate chain against. This is specified as part of the URL.
version (string: "") - Specifies the version of the key to import the chain against. If the version is set to latest or is not set, the current key will be returned.
certificate_chain (string: "") - Optional PEM-encoded CSR template to use as a basis for the new CSR signed by this key. If not set, an empty CSR is used.
This endpoint returns a wrapped copy of the source key, protected by the destination key using BYOK method accepted by the /transit/keys/:name/import API. This allows an operator using two separate Vault instances to secure established shared key material, withing exposing either key in plaintext and needing to run a manual BYOK import using the CLI helper utility.
destination (string: <required>) - Specifies the name of the key to encrypt the source key to: this is usually another mount or cluster's wrapping key (from /transit/wrapping_key). This is specified as part of the URL.
Note: This destination key type must be an RSA key type.
source (string: <required>) - Specifies the source key to encrypt, to copy (encrypted) to another cluster. This is specified as part of the URL.
version (string: "") - Specifies the version of the source key to wrap. If omitted, all versions of the key will be returned. This is specified as part of the URL. If the version is set to latest, the current key will be returned.
This endpoint returns the named key. The keys object shows the value of the key for each version. If version is specified, the specific version will be returned. If latest is provided as the version, the current key will be provided. Depending on the type of key, different information may be returned. The key must be exportable to support this operation and the version must still be valid.
key_type (string: <required>) – Specifies the type of the key to export. This is specified as part of the URL. Valid values are:
encryption-key
signing-key
hmac-key
public-key, to return the corresponding public keys of private key asymmetric keys (EC with NIST P-curves or Ed25519 and RSA).
certificate-chain, to return the imported certificate chain (via set-certificate) corresponding to this key and version.
name (string: <required>) – Specifies the name of the key to read information about. This is specified as part of the URL.
version (string: "") – Specifies the version of the key to read. If omitted, all versions of the key will be returned. This is specified as part of the URL. If the version is set to latest, the current key will be returned.
This endpoint maintains global configuration across all keys. This allows removing the upsert capability of the /encrypt/:key endpoint, preventing new keys from being created if none exists.
disable_upsert (bool: false) - Specifies whether to disable upserting on encryption (automatic creation of unknown keys).
This endpoint maintains global configuration across all keys. This allows removing the upsert capability of the /encrypt/:key endpoint, preventing new keys from being created if none exists.
This endpoint encrypts the provided plaintext using the named key. This path supports the create and update policy capabilities as follows: if the user has the create capability for this endpoint in their policies, and the key does not exist, it will be upserted with default values (whether the key requires derivation depends on whether the context parameter is empty or not). If the user only has update capability and the key does not exist, an error will be returned.
Note: If upsert is disallowed by global keys configuration, create requests will behave like update requests.
name (string: <required>) – Specifies the name of the encryption key to encrypt against. This is specified as part of the URL.
plaintext (string: <required>) – Specifies base64 encoded plaintext to be encoded.
associated_data (string: "") - Specifies base64 encoded associated data (also known as additional data or AAD) to also be authenticated with AEAD ciphers (aes128-gcm96, aes256-gcm, and chacha20-poly1305).
context (string: "") – Specifies the base64 encoded context for key derivation. This is required if key derivation is enabled for this key.
key_version (int: 0) – Specifies the version of the key to use for encryption. If not set, uses the latest version. Must be greater than or equal to the key's min_encryption_version, if set.
nonce (string: "") – Specifies the base64 encoded nonce value. This must be provided if convergent encryption is enabled for this key and the key was generated with Vault 0.6.1. Not required for keys created in 0.6.2+. The value must be exactly 96 bits (12 bytes) long and the user must ensure that for any given context (and thus, any given encryption key) this nonce value is never reused.
reference (string: "") - A user-supplied string that will be present in the reference field on the corresponding batch_results item in the response, to assist in understanding which result corresponds to a particular input. Only valid on batch requests when using ‘batch_input’ below.
batch_input (array<object>: nil) – Specifies a list of items to be encrypted in a single batch. When this parameter is set, if the parameters 'plaintext', 'context' and 'nonce' are also set, they will be ignored. Any batch output will preserve the order of the batch input. The format for the input is:
type (string: "aes256-gcm96") –This parameter is required when encryption key is expected to be created. When performing an upsert operation, the type of key to create.
convergent_encryption (string: "") – This parameter will only be used when a key is expected to be created. Whether to support convergent encryption. This is only supported when using a key with key derivation enabled and will require all requests to carry both a context and 96-bit (12-byte) nonce. The given nonce will be used in place of a randomly generated nonce. As a result, when the same context and nonce are supplied, the same ciphertext is generated. It is very important when using this mode that you ensure that all nonces are unique for a given context. Failing to do so will severely impact the ciphertext's security.
partial_failure_response_code (int: 400) Ordinarily, if a batch item fails to encrypt due to a bad input, but other batch items succeed, the HTTP response code is 400 (Bad Request). Some applications may want to treat partial failures differently. Providing the parameter returns the given response code integer instead of a failed status code in this case. If all values fail an error code is still returned. Be warned that some failures (such as failure to decrypt) could be indicative of a security breach and should not be ignored.
~>NOTE: All plaintext data must be base64-encoded. The reason for this requirement is that Vault does not require that the plaintext is "text". It could be a binary file such as a PDF or image. The easiest safe transport mechanism for this data as part of a JSON payload is to base64-encode it.
Fist, encode the plaintext with base64:
Use the base64-encoded plaintext in the payload:
Vault HTTP API imposes a maximum request size of 32MB to prevent a denial of service attack. This can be tuned per listener block in the Vault server configuration.
This endpoint decrypts the provided ciphertext using the named key.
name (string: <required>) – Specifies the name of the encryption key to decrypt against. This is specified as part of the URL.
ciphertext (string: <required>) – Specifies the ciphertext to decrypt.
associated_data (string: "") - Specifies base64 encoded associated data (also known as additional data or AAD) to also be authenticated with AEAD ciphers (aes128-gcm96, aes256-gcm, and chacha20-poly1305).
context (string: "") – Specifies the base64 encoded context for key derivation. This is required if key derivation is enabled.
nonce (string: "") – Specifies a base64 encoded nonce value used during encryption. Must be provided if convergent encryption is enabled for this key and the key was generated with Vault 0.6.1. Not required for keys created in 0.6.2+.
reference (string: "") - A user-supplied string that will be present in the reference field on the corresponding batch_results item in the response, to assist in understanding which result corresponds to a particular input. Only valid on batch requests when using ‘batch_input’ below.
batch_input (array<object>: nil) – Specifies a list of items to be decrypted in a single batch. When this parameter is set, if the parameters 'ciphertext', 'context' and 'nonce' are also set, they will be ignored. Any batch output will preserve the order of the batch input. Format for the input goes like this:
partial_failure_response_code (int: 400) Ordinarily, if a batch item fails to encrypt due to a bad input, but other batch items succeed, the HTTP response code is 400 (Bad Request). Some applications may want to treat partial failures differently. Providing the parameter returns the given response code integer instead of a failed status code in this case. If all values fail an error code is still returned. Be warned that some failures (such as failure to decrypt) could be indicative of a security breach and should not be ignored.
This endpoint rewraps the provided ciphertext using the latest version of the named key. Because this never returns plaintext, it is possible to delegate this functionality to untrusted users or scripts.
name (string: <required>) – Specifies the name of the encryption key to re-encrypt against. This is specified as part of the URL.
ciphertext (string: <required>) – Specifies the ciphertext to re-encrypt.
context (string: "") – Specifies the base64 encoded context for key derivation. This is required if key derivation is enabled.
key_version (int: 0) – Specifies the version of the key to use for the operation. If not set, uses the latest version. Must be greater than or equal to the key's min_encryption_version, if set.
nonce (string: "") – Specifies a base64 encoded nonce value used during encryption. Must be provided if convergent encryption is enabled for this key and the key was generated with Vault 0.6.1. Not required for keys created in 0.6.2+.
reference (string: "") - A user-supplied string that will be present in the reference field on the corresponding batch_results item in the response, to assist in understanding which result corresponds to a particular input. Only valid on batch requests when using ‘batch_input’ below.
batch_input (array<object>: nil) – Specifies a list of items to be re-encrypted in a single batch. When this parameter is set, if the parameters 'ciphertext', 'context' and 'nonce' are also set, they will be ignored. Any batch output will preserve the order of the batch input. Format for the input goes like this:
This endpoint generates a new high-entropy key and the value encrypted with the named key. Optionally return the plaintext of the key as well. Whether plaintext is returned depends on the path; as a result, you can use Vault ACL policies to control whether a user is allowed to retrieve the plaintext value of a key. This is useful if you want an untrusted user or operation to generate keys that are then made available to trusted users.
type (string: <required>) – Specifies the type of key to generate. If plaintext, the plaintext key will be returned along with the ciphertext. If wrapped, only the ciphertext value will be returned. This is specified as part of the URL.
name (string: <required>) – Specifies the name of the encryption key to use to encrypt the datakey. This is specified as part of the URL.
context (string: "") – Specifies the key derivation context, provided as a base64-encoded string. This must be provided if derivation is enabled.
nonce (string: "") – Specifies a nonce value, provided as base64 encoded. Must be provided if convergent encryption is enabled for this key and the key was generated with Vault 0.6.1. Not required for keys created in 0.6.2+. The value must be exactly 96 bits (12 bytes) long and the user must ensure that for any given context (and thus, any given encryption key) this nonce value is never reused.
bits (int: 256) – Specifies the number of bits in the desired key. Can be 128, 256, or 512.
This endpoint returns high-quality random bytes of the specified length.
bytes (int: 32) – Specifies the number of bytes to return. This value can be specified either in the request body, or as a part of the URL.
format (string: "base64") – Specifies the output encoding. Valid options are hex or base64.