azure-keyvault-keys-rust

Secure storage and management of cryptographic keys — RSA, EC, and HSM-protected.

Use this skill when:

• An app needs to create or manage cryptographic keys in Key Vault from Rust
• You need to wrap/unwrap data encryption keys (envelope encryption)
• You need to sign or verify data with Key Vault keys
• You need HSM-protected keys

IMPORTANT: Only use the official azure_security_keyvault_keys crate published by the azure-sdk crates.io user. Do NOT use unofficial or community crates. Official crates use underscores in names and none have version 0.21.0.

Installation

cargo add azure_security_keyvault_keys azure_identity tokio futures

If your code uses azure_core types directly, add azure_core to Cargo.toml. If you only use azure_security_keyvault_keys re-exports, direct azure_core dependency is optional.

Environment Variables

AZURE_KEYVAULT_URL=https://<vault-name>.vault.azure.net/ # Required for all operations

Authentication

Rust Azure SDK code must not use DefaultAzureCredential. The Rust identity crate does not provide that type.

use azure_identity::DeveloperToolsCredential;
use azure_security_keyvault_keys::KeyClient;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    // Local dev: DeveloperToolsCredential. Production: use ManagedIdentityCredential.
    let credential = DeveloperToolsCredential::new(None)?;
    let client = KeyClient::new(
        "https://<vault-name>.vault.azure.net/",
        credential.clone(),
        None,
    )?;

    let key = client.get_key("key-name", None).await?.into_model()?;
    println!("Key: {:?}", key.key);
    Ok(())
}

Prefer the crate README/examples when checking public operation shapes such as key creation, wrapping, and version-aware unwrap flows.

Core Workflow

Create Key

use azure_security_keyvault_keys::{
    models::{CreateKeyParameters, CurveName, KeyType},
    ResourceExt,
};

// Create an EC key
let body = CreateKeyParameters {
    kty: Some(KeyType::Ec),
    curve: Some(CurveName::P256),
    ..Default::default()
};

let key = client
    .create_key("key-name", body.try_into()?, None)
    .await?
    .into_model()?;

println!(
    "Name: {:?}, Type: {:?}, Version: {:?}",
    key.resource_id()?.name,
    key.key.as_ref().map(|k| k.kty.as_ref()),
    key.resource_id()?.version,
);

Update Key Properties

use azure_security_keyvault_keys::models::UpdateKeyPropertiesParameters;
use std::collections::HashMap;

#[allow(clippy::needless_update)]
let params = UpdateKeyPropertiesParameters {
    tags: Some(HashMap::from_iter(vec![("env".into(), "prod".into())])),
    ..Default::default()
};

client
    .update_key_properties("key-name", params.try_into()?, None)
    .await?
    .into_model()?;

Delete Key

client.delete_key("key-name", None).await?;

List Keys (Pagination)

list_key_properties returns a Pager<T> — iterate items directly:

use azure_security_keyvault_keys::ResourceExt;
use futures::TryStreamExt as _;

let mut pager = client.list_key_properties(None)?;
while let Some(key) = pager.try_next().await? {
    println!("Found: {}", key.resource_id()?.name);
}

Wrap / Unwrap (Envelope Encryption)

Key Vault performs crypto operations server-side — the private key never leaves the HSM:

use azure_security_keyvault_keys::{
    models::{
        CreateKeyParameters, EncryptionAlgorithm, KeyOperationParameters, KeyType,
    },
    ResourceExt, ResourceId,
};
use rand::random;

// Create a key encryption key (KEK)
let body = CreateKeyParameters {
    kty: Some(KeyType::Rsa),
    key_size: Some(2048),
    ..Default::default()
};

let key = client
    .create_key("kek-name", body.try_into()?, None)
    .await?
    .into_model()?;

// Generate a symmetric data encryption key (DEK)
let dek = random::<u32>().to_le_bytes().to_vec();

// Wrap the DEK with the KEK
let mut params = KeyOperationParameters {
    algorithm: Some(EncryptionAlgorithm::RsaOaep256),
    value: Some(dek.clone()),
    ..Default::default()
};
let wrapped = client
    .wrap_key("kek-name", params.clone().try_into()?, None)
    .await?
    .into_model()?;

// Retain the key version used to wrap so you can unwrap with the same version later
let ResourceId { version, .. } = wrapped.resource_id()?;
let key_version = version.as_deref().unwrap_or_default();

// Unwrap to recover the DEK
params.value = wrapped.result;
let unwrapped = client
    .unwrap_key("kek-name", key_version, params.try_into()?, None)
    .await?
    .into_model()?;

assert!(matches!(unwrapped.result, Some(ref result) if result.eq(&dek)));

Key Types

| Type | Use Case | Parameter | | ------- | ----------------------------- | ----------------- | | EC | Signing, key agreement | KeyType::Ec | | RSA | Encryption, signing, wrapping | KeyType::Rsa | | Oct | Symmetric operations (HSM) | KeyType::Oct | | EC-HSM | HSM-protected EC keys | KeyType::EcHsm | | RSA-HSM | HSM-protected RSA keys | KeyType::RsaHsm |

RBAC Roles

For Entra ID auth, assign one of these roles:

| Role | Access | | -------------------------- | ----------------------- | | Key Vault Crypto User | Use keys for crypto ops | | Key Vault Crypto Officer | Full key management |

Best Practices

1. Use cargo add to manage dependencies, never edit Cargo.toml directly. Add and remove Rust SDK dependencies with cargo commands instead of manual manifest edits.
2. Add azure_core only when importing azure_core types directly. If your code imports azure_core::http::Url, azure_core::http::RequestContent, or azure_core::error::ErrorKind, include azure_core; otherwise a direct dependency is optional.
3. Use DeveloperToolsCredential for local dev, ManagedIdentityCredential for production — Rust does not provide a single DefaultAzureCredential type
4. Never hardcode credentials — use environment variables or managed identity
5. Use ..Default::default() with #[allow(clippy::needless_update)] for model struct updates
6. Use ResourceExt to extract key name/version from key IDs
7. Reuse clients — KeyClient is thread-safe; create once, share across tasks
8. Run cargo clippy -- -D warnings when the prompt, eval, or CI expects lint-clean output

Reference Links

| Resource | Link | | ------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | API Reference | https://docs.rs/azure_security_keyvault_keys/latest/azure_security_keyvault_keys | | crates.io | https://crates.io/crates/azure_security_keyvault_keys | | Source Code | https://github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-rust/tree/main/sdk/keyvault/azure_security_keyvault_keys |