Azure Key Vault keys, secrets and certificates overview

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Azure Key Vault enables Azure applications and users to store and use several types of secret/key data: keys, secrets, and certificates. Keys, secrets, and certificates are collectively referred to as "objects".

Object identifiers

Objects are uniquely identified within Key Vault using a case-insensitive identifier called the object identifier. No two objects in the system have the same identifier, regardless of geo-location. The identifier consists of a prefix that identifies the key vault, object type, user provided object name, and an object version. Identifiers that don't include the object version are referred to as "base identifiers". Key Vault object identifiers are also valid URLs, but should always be compared as case-insensitive strings.

For more information, see Authentication, requests, and responses

An object identifier has the following general format (depending on container type):

  • For Vaults: https://{vault-name}.vault.azure.cn/{object-type}/{object-name}/{object-version}

Where:

Element Description
vault-name The name for a vault in the Azure Key Vault service.

Vault names are selected by the user and are globally unique.

Vault name must be a 3-24 character string, containing only 0-9, a-z, A-Z, and -.
object-type The type of the object, "keys", "secrets", or "certificates".
object-name An object-name is a user provided name for and must be unique within a key vault. The name must be a 1-127 character string, starting with a letter and containing only 0-9, a-z, A-Z, and -.
object-version An object-version is a system-generated, 32 character string identifier that is optionally used to address a unique version of an object.
  • Secrets: Provides secure storage of secrets, such as passwords and database connection strings. For more information, see About secrets.
  • Certificates: Supports certificates, which are built on top of keys and secrets and add an automated renewal feature. Keep in mind when a certificate is created, an addressable key and secret are also created with the same name. For more information, see About certificates.
  • Azure Storage account keys: Can manage keys of an Azure Storage account for you. Internally, Key Vault can list (sync) keys with an Azure Storage Account, and regenerate (rotate) the keys periodically. For more information, see Manage storage account keys with Key Vault.

For more general information about Key Vault, see About Azure Key Vault.

Data types

Refer to the JOSE specifications for relevant data types for keys, encryption, and signing.

  • algorithm - a supported algorithm for a key operation, for example, RSA1_5
  • ciphertext-value - cipher text octets, encoded using Base64URL
  • digest-value - the output of a hash algorithm, encoded using Base64URL
  • key-type - one of the supported key types, for example RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman).
  • plaintext-value - plaintext octets, encoded using Base64URL
  • signature-value - output of a signature algorithm, encoded using Base64URL
  • base64URL - a Base64URL [RFC4648] encoded binary value
  • boolean - either true or false
  • Identity - an identity from Microsoft Entra ID.
  • IntDate - a JSON decimal value representing the number of seconds from 1970-01-01T0:0:0Z UTC until the specified UTC date/time. See RFC3339 for details regarding date/times, in general and UTC in particular.

Objects, identifiers, and versioning

Objects stored in Key Vault are versioned whenever a new instance of an object is created. Each version is assigned a unique object identifier. When an object is first created, it's given a unique version identifier and marked as the current version of the object. Creation of a new instance with the same object name gives the new object a unique version identifier, causing it to become the current version.

Objects in Key Vault can be retrieved by specifying a version or by omitting version to get latest version of the object. Performing operations on objects requires providing version to use specific version of the object.

Note

The values you provide for Azure resources or object IDs may be copied globally for the purpose of running the service. The value provided should not include personally identifiable or sensitive information.

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