To configure Azure Database Always Encrypted, you can follow these steps:
- Create an encryption key hierarchy: You need to create an encryption key hierarchy to protect your sensitive data. You can use either Azure Key Vault or Windows Certificate Store to store your encryption keys. Always Encrypted supports two types of encryption keys: column encryption keys and column master keys.
- Create a column master key: A column master key is used to protect the column encryption keys. You can create a column master key in Azure Key Vault or Windows Certificate Store. For example, you can use the Azure Key Vault to create a column master key with the following PowerShell command:sql
Add-AzKeyVaultKey -VaultName 'MyVault' -Name 'CMK' -Destination 'Software' -KeyOps wrapKey,unwrapKey -KeySize 2048 -KeyNotBefore (Get-Date) -KeyExpires (Get-Date).AddYears(1)
This command creates a column master key named “CMK” in the “MyVault” key vault. The “-Destination” parameter specifies the location where the key will be stored. In this example, the key is stored in software.
Create a column encryption key: A column encryption key is used to encrypt and decrypt your sensitive data. You can create a column encryption key in Azure Key Vault or Windows Certificate Store. For example, you can use the Azure Key Vault to create a column encryption key with the following PowerShell command:
Add-AzKeyVaultKey -VaultName 'MyVault' -Name 'CEK' -Destination 'Software' -KeyOps wrapKey,unwrapKey -KeySize 256 -KeyNotBefore (Get-Date) -KeyExpires (Get-Date).AddYears(1)
This command creates a column encryption key named “CEK” in the “MyVault” key vault. The “-Destination” parameter specifies the location where the key will be stored. In this example, the key is stored in software.
Configure column encryption: You can use the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) or Azure Portal to configure column encryption. You need to specify the column encryption key that you want to use to encrypt the sensitive data. For example, you can use SSMS to configure column encryption with the following steps:
a. Connect to your Azure SQL Database or Azure SQL Managed Instance.
b. Right-click on the database and select “Tasks” -> “Encrypt Columns”.
c. Select the table that you want to encrypt and click “Next”.
d. Select the column that you want to encrypt and click “Next”.
e. Select “Always Encrypted” as the encryption type and select the column encryption key that you created earlier. Click “Next”.
f. Review the summary and click “Finish”.
Update your application: You need to update your application to use the column encryption key to encrypt and decrypt the sensitive data. You can use the Always Encrypted enabled client drivers to perform the encryption and decryption. For example, you can use the .NET Framework to access the encrypted data with the following code:
using (SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection(connectionString)) { connection.Open(); SqlCommand command = new SqlCommand("SELECT * FROM dbo.MyTable", connection); SqlDataReader reader = command.ExecuteReader(); while (reader.Read()) { string encryptedData = reader.GetString(0); string decryptedData = DecryptColumnData(encryptedData); Console.WriteLine(decryptedData); } }This code retrieves the encrypted data from the “MyTable” table and decrypts it using the DecryptColumnData method.
By following these steps, you can configure Azure Database Always
