Database Manual / Reference / mongosh Methods / In-Use Encryption

getClientEncryption() (mongosh method)

getClientEncryption()

Returns the ClientEncryption object for the current database collection. The ClientEncryption object supports explicit (manual) encryption and decryption of field values for Client-Side field level encryption.

Returns:	The `ClientEncryption` object for current database connection.

Compatibility

This command is available in deployments hosted in the following environments:

MongoDB Atlas: The fully managed service for MongoDB deployments in the cloud

MongoDB Enterprise: The subscription-based, self-managed version of MongoDB
MongoDB Community: The source-available, free-to-use, and self-managed version of MongoDB

Syntax

getClientEncryption() has the following syntax:

db.getMongo().getClientEncryption();

Use the ClientEncryption object to access the following explicit encryption methods:

Behavior

Enable Client-Side Field Level Encryption on Database Connection

The mongosh ClientEncryption methods require a database connection with in-use encryption enabled. If the current database connection was not initiated with in-use encryption enabled, either:

Use the Mongo() constructor from the mongosh to establish a connection with the required in-use encryption options. The Mongo() method supports the following Key Management Service (KMS) providers for Customer Master Key (CMK) management:
or
Use the mongosh command line options to establish a connection with the required options. The command line options only support the Amazon Web Services KMS provider for CMK management.

Example

The getKeyVault() method automatically creates a unique index on the keyAltNames field with a partial index filter for only documents where keyAltNames exists. getKeyVault() creates this index in the key vault collection. This prevents any two data encryption keys in the same key vault from having the same key alternative name and therefore avoids ambiguity around which data encryption key is appropriate for encryption/decryption.

Warning

Do not drop the unique index created by getKeyVault(). Client-Side Field Level Encryption operations depend on server-enforced uniqueness of keyAltNames. Removing the index may lead to unexpected or unpredictable behavior.

The following example uses a locally managed KMS for the client-side field level encryption configuration.

Start mongosh

Start the mongosh client.

mongosh --nodb

Generate Your Key

To configure client-side field level encryption for a locally managed key, generate a base64-encoded 96-byte string with no line breaks.

const TEST_LOCAL_KEY = require("crypto").randomBytes(96).toString("base64")

Create the Client-Side Field Level Encryption Options

Create the client-side field level encryption options using the generated local key string:

 var autoEncryptionOpts = {
   "keyVaultNamespace" : "encryption.__dataKeys",
   "kmsProviders" : {
     "local" : {
       "key" : BinData(0, TEST_LOCAL_KEY)
     }
   }
 }

Create Your Encrypted Client

Use the Mongo() constructor with the client-side field level encryption options configured to create a database connection. Replace the mongodb://myMongo.example.net URI with the connection string URI of the target cluster.

encryptedClient = Mongo(
  "mongodb://myMongo.example.net:27017/?replSetName=myMongo",
   autoEncryptionOpts
)

Use the getClientEncryption() method to retrieve the client encryption object:

clientEncryption = encryptedClient.getClientEncryption()

Learn More

For complete documentation on initiating MongoDB connections with client-side field level encryption enabled, see Mongo().

Back

ClientEncryption.decrypt

getKeyVault