Provide access to Key Vault keys, certificates, and secrets with an Azure role-based access control

Article
09/23/2024

Note

Key Vault resource provider supports two resource types: vaults and managed HSMs. Access control described in this article only applies to vaults. To learn more about access control for managed HSM, see Managed HSM access control.

Note

Azure App Service certificate configuration through Azure Portal does not support Key Vault RBAC permission model. You can use Azure PowerShell, Azure CLI, ARM template deployments with Key Vault Certificate User role assignment for App Service global identity, for example Azure App Service' in public cloud.

Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC) is an authorization system built on Azure Resource Manager that provides centralized access management of Azure resources.

Azure RBAC allows users to manage keys, secrets, and certificates permissions, and provides one place to manage all permissions across all key vaults.

The Azure RBAC model allows users to set permissions on different scope levels: management group, subscription, resource group, or individual resources. Azure RBAC for key vault also allows users to have separate permissions on individual keys, secrets, and certificates.

For more information, see Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC).

Best Practices for individual keys, secrets, and certificates role assignments

Our recommendation is to use a vault per application per environment (Development, Pre-Production, and Production) with roles assigned at the key vault scope.

Assigning roles on individual keys, secrets and certificates should be avoided. An exception is a scenario where individual secrets must be shared between multiple applications; for example, where one application needs to access data from another application.

More about Azure Key Vault management guidelines, see:

Azure built-in roles for Key Vault data plane operations

Note

The Key Vault Contributor role is for management plane operations only to manage key vaults. It does not allow access to keys, secrets and certificates.

Built-in role	Description	ID
Key Vault Administrator	Perform all data plane operations on a key vault and all objects in it, including certificates, keys, and secrets. Cannot manage key vault resources or manage role assignments. Only works for key vaults that use the 'Azure role-based access control' permission model.	00482a5a-887f-4fb3-b363-3b7fe8e74483
Key Vault Reader	Read metadata of key vaults and its certificates, keys, and secrets. Cannot read sensitive values such as secret contents or key material. Only works for key vaults that use the 'Azure role-based access control' permission model.	21090545-7ca7-4776-b22c-e363652d74d2
Key Vault Certificates Officer	Perform any action on the certificates of a key vault, excluding reading the secret and key portions, and managing permissions. Only works for key vaults that use the 'Azure role-based access control' permission model.	a4417e6f-fecd-4de8-b567-7b0420556985
Key Vault Certificate User	Read entire certificate contents including secret and key portion. Only works for key vaults that use the 'Azure role-based access control' permission model.	db79e9a7-68ee-4b58-9aeb-b90e7c24fcba
Key Vault Crypto Officer	Perform any action on the keys of a key vault, except manage permissions. Only works for key vaults that use the 'Azure role-based access control' permission model.	14b46e9e-c2b7-41b4-b07b-48a6ebf60603
Key Vault Crypto Service Encryption User	Read metadata of keys and perform wrap/unwrap operations. Only works for key vaults that use the 'Azure role-based access control' permission model.	e147488a-f6f5-4113-8e2d-b22465e65bf6
Key Vault Crypto User	Perform cryptographic operations using keys. Only works for key vaults that use the 'Azure role-based access control' permission model.	12338af0-0e69-4776-bea7-57ae8d297424
Key Vault Crypto Service Release User	Release keys for Azure Confidential Computing and equivalent environments. Only works for key vaults that use the 'Azure role-based access control' permission model.
Key Vault Secrets Officer	Perform any action on the secrets of a key vault, except manage permissions. Only works for key vaults that use the 'Azure role-based access control' permission model.	b86a8fe4-44ce-4948-aee5-eccb2c155cd7
Key Vault Secrets User	Read secret contents including secret portion of a certificate with private key. Only works for key vaults that use the 'Azure role-based access control' permission model.	4633458b-17de-408a-b874-0445c86b69e6

For more information about Azure built-in roles definitions, see Azure built-in roles.

Managing built-in Key Vault data plane role assignments

Built-in role	Description	ID
Key Vault Data Access Administrator	Manage access to Azure Key Vault by adding or removing role assignments for the Key Vault Administrator, Key Vault Certificates Officer, Key Vault Crypto Officer, Key Vault Crypto Service Encryption User, Key Vault Crypto User, Key Vault Reader, Key Vault Secrets Officer, or Key Vault Secrets User roles. Includes an ABAC condition to constrain role assignments.	8b54135c-b56d-4d72-a534-26097cfdc8d8

Using Azure RBAC secret, key, and certificate permissions with Key Vault

The new Azure RBAC permission model for key vault provides alternative to the vault access policy permissions model.

Prerequisites

You must have an Azure subscription. If you don't, you can create a trial subscription before you begin.

To manage role assignments, you must have Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/write and Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/delete permissions, such as Key Vault Data Access Administrator (with restricted permissions to only assign/remove specific Key Vault roles), User Access Administrator, or Owner.

Enable Azure RBAC permissions on Key Vault

Note

Changing the permission model requires unrestricted 'Microsoft.Authorization/roleAssignments/write' permission, which is part of the Owner and User Access Administrator roles. Classic subscription administrator roles like 'Service Administrator' and 'Co-Administrator', or restricted 'Key Vault Data Access Administrator' cannot be used to change permission model.

Enable Azure RBAC permissions on new key vault:
Enable Azure RBAC permissions on existing key vault:

Important

Setting Azure RBAC permission model invalidates all access policies permissions. It can cause outages when equivalent Azure roles aren't assigned.

Assign role

Note

It's recommended to use the unique role ID instead of the role name in scripts. Therefore, if a role is renamed, your scripts would continue to work. In this document role name is used for readability.

To create a role assignment using the Azure CLI, use the az role assignment command:

az role assignment create --role {role-name-or-id} --assignee {assignee-upn}> --scope {scope}

For full details, see Assign Azure roles using Azure CLI.

To create a role assignment using Azure PowerShell, use the New-AzRoleAssignment cmdlet:

#Assign by User Principal Name
New-AzRoleAssignment -RoleDefinitionName {role-name} -SignInName {assignee-upn} -Scope {scope}

#Assign by Service Principal ApplicationId
New-AzRoleAssignment -RoleDefinitionName Reader -ApplicationId {application-id} -Scope {scope}

For full details, see Assign Azure roles using Azure PowerShell.

Resource group scope role assignment

Go to the Resource Group that contains your key vault.
Select Access control (IAM).
Select Add > Add role assignment to open the Add role assignment page.
Assign the following role. For detailed steps, see Assign Azure roles using the Azure portal.

Setting Value

Role "Key Vault Reader"

Assign access to Current user

Members Search by email address

Setting	Value
Role	"Key Vault Reader"
Assign access to	Current user
Members	Search by email address

az role assignment create --role "Key Vault Reader" --assignee {i.e user@microsoft.com} --scope /subscriptions/{subscriptionid}/resourcegroups/{resource-group-name}

For full details, see Assign Azure roles using Azure CLI.

#Assign by User Principal Name
New-AzRoleAssignment -RoleDefinitionName 'Key Vault Reader' -SignInName {assignee-upn} -Scope /subscriptions/{subscriptionid}/resourcegroups/{resource-group-name}

#Assign by Service Principal ApplicationId
New-AzRoleAssignment -RoleDefinitionName 'Key Vault Reader' -ApplicationId {application-id} -Scope /subscriptions/{subscriptionid}/resourcegroups/{resource-group-name}

For full details, see Assign Azure roles using Azure PowerShell.

Above role assignment provides ability to list key vault objects in key vault.

Key Vault scope role assignment

Go to Key Vault > Access control (IAM) tab
Select Add > Add role assignment to open the Add role assignment page.
Assign the following role. For detailed steps, see Assign Azure roles using the Azure portal.

Setting Value

Role "Key Vault Secrets Officer"

Assign access to Current user

Members Search by email address

Setting	Value
Role	"Key Vault Secrets Officer"
Assign access to	Current user
Members	Search by email address

az role assignment create --role "Key Vault Secrets Officer" --assignee {assignee-upn} --scope /subscriptions/{subscriptionid}/resourcegroups/{resource-group-name}/providers/Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/{key-vault-name}

For full details, see Assign Azure roles using Azure CLI.

#Assign by User Principal Name
New-AzRoleAssignment -RoleDefinitionName 'Key Vault Secrets Officer' -SignInName {assignee-upn} -Scope /subscriptions/{subscriptionid}/resourcegroups/{resource-group-name}/providers/Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/{key-vault-name}

#Assign by Service Principal ApplicationId
New-AzRoleAssignment -RoleDefinitionName 'Key Vault Secrets Officer' -ApplicationId {application-id} -Scope /subscriptions/{subscriptionid}/resourcegroups/{resource-group-name}/providers/Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/{key-vault-name}

For full details, see Assign Azure roles using Azure PowerShell.

Secret scope role assignment

Note

Key vault secret, certificate, key scope role assignments should only be used for limited scenarios described here to comply with security best practices.

Open a previously created secret.
Click the Access control(IAM) tab
Select Add > Add role assignment to open the Add role assignment page.
Assign the following role. For detailed steps, see Assign Azure roles using the Azure portal.

Setting Value

Role "Key Vault Secrets Officer"

Assign access to Current user

Members Search by email address

Setting	Value
Role	"Key Vault Secrets Officer"
Assign access to	Current user
Members	Search by email address

az role assignment create --role "Key Vault Secrets Officer" --assignee {i.e user@microsoft.com} --scope /subscriptions/{subscriptionid}/resourcegroups/{resource-group-name}/providers/Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/{key-vault-name}/secrets/RBACSecret

For full details, see Assign Azure roles using Azure CLI.

#Assign by User Principal Name
New-AzRoleAssignment -RoleDefinitionName 'Key Vault Secrets Officer' -SignInName {i.e user@microsoft.com} -Scope /subscriptions/{subscriptionid}/resourcegroups/{resource-group-name}/providers/Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/{key-vault-name}/secrets/RBACSecret

#Assign by Service Principal ApplicationId
New-AzRoleAssignment -RoleDefinitionName 'Key Vault Secrets Officer' -ApplicationId {i.e 8ee5237a-816b-4a72-b605-446970e5f156} -Scope /subscriptions/{subscriptionid}/resourcegroups/{resource-group-name}/providers/Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/{key-vault-name}/secrets/RBACSecret

For full details, see Assign Azure roles using Azure PowerShell.

Test and verify

Note

Browsers use caching and page refresh is required after removing role assignments. Allow several minutes for role assignments to refresh

Validate adding new secret without "Key Vault Secrets Officer" role on key vault level.
1. Go to key vault Access control (IAM) tab and remove "Key Vault Secrets Officer" role assignment for this resource.
2. Navigate to previously created secret. You can see all secret properties.
3. Create new secret ( Secrets > +Generate/Import) should show this error:
Validate secret editing without "Key Vault Secret Officer" role on secret level.
1. Go to previously created secret Access Control (IAM) tab and remove "Key Vault Secrets Officer" role assignment for this resource.
2. Navigate to previously created secret. You can see secret properties.
Validate secrets read without reader role on key vault level.
1. Go to key vault resource group Access control (IAM) tab and remove "Key Vault Reader" role assignment.
2. Navigating to key vault's Secrets tab should show this error:

Creating custom roles

az role definition create command

az role definition create --role-definition '{ \
   "Name": "Backup Keys Operator", \
   "Description": "Perform key backup/restore operations", \
    "Actions": [ 
    ], \
    "DataActions": [ \
        "Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/keys/read ", \
        "Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/keys/backup/action", \
         "Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/keys/restore/action" \
    ], \
    "NotDataActions": [ 
   ], \
    "AssignableScopes": ["/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}"] \
}'

$roleDefinition = @"
{ 
   "Name": "Backup Keys Operator", 
   "Description": "Perform key backup/restore operations", 
    "Actions": [ 
    ], 
    "DataActions": [ 
        "Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/keys/read ", 
        "Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/keys/backup/action", 
         "Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults/keys/restore/action" 
    ], 
    "NotDataActions": [ 
   ], 
    "AssignableScopes": ["/subscriptions/{subscriptionId}"] 
}
"@

$roleDefinition | Out-File role.json

New-AzRoleDefinition -InputFile role.json

For more Information about how to create custom roles, see:

Azure custom roles

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use Key Vault role-based access control (RBAC) permission model object-scope assignments to provide isolation for application teams within Key Vault?

No. RBAC permission model allows you to assign access to individual objects in Key Vault to user or application, but any administrative operations like network access control, monitoring, and objects management require vault level permissions, which will then expose secure information to operators across application teams.

Provide access to Key Vault keys, certificates, and secrets with an Azure role-based access control

Best Practices for individual keys, secrets, and certificates role assignments

Azure built-in roles for Key Vault data plane operations

Managing built-in Key Vault data plane role assignments

Using Azure RBAC secret, key, and certificate permissions with Key Vault

Prerequisites

Enable Azure RBAC permissions on Key Vault

Assign role

Resource group scope role assignment

Key Vault scope role assignment

Secret scope role assignment

Test and verify

Creating custom roles

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use Key Vault role-based access control (RBAC) permission model object-scope assignments to provide isolation for application teams within Key Vault?

Learn more

Additional resources