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

getKeyVault() (mongosh method)

getKeyVault()

Returns the KeyVault object for the current database connection. The KeyVault object supports data encryption key management for Client-Side Field Level Encryption.

Returns:The KeyVault 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

Syntax

getKeyVault() has the following syntax:

keyVault = db.getMongo().getKeyVault();

Use the KeyVault object to access the following data encryption key management methods:

Behavior

Requires Configuring Client-Side Field Level Encryption on Database Connection

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

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:

Unique Partial Index on Key Vault

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.

Example

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

1

Start mongosh

Start the mongosh client.

mongosh --nodb
2

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")
3

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)
}
}
}
4

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 getKeyVault() method to retrieve the key vault object:

keyVault = encryptedClient.getKeyVault()

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