Azure Key Vault Certificates library for Rust

Manage X.509 certificates for TLS/SSL, code signing, and authentication.

Use this skill when:

• An app needs to create or manage X.509 certificates in Key Vault from Rust
• You need self-signed or CA-issued certificates
• You need long-running operations (LRO) for certificate issuance
• You need to sign data using a certificate's key

IMPORTANT: Only use the official azure_security_keyvault_certificates 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_certificates 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_certificates 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_certificates::CertificateClient;

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

    let cert = client
        .get_certificate("cert-name", None)
        .await?
        .into_model()?;
    println!("Certificate: {:?}", cert.id);
    Ok(())
}

Prefer the crate README/examples when checking LRO and poller usage rather than inferring public behavior from generated internal types.

Core Workflow

Create Self-Signed Certificate (LRO)

Creating a certificate is a long-running operation. Poller<T> implements IntoFuture — just .await:

use azure_security_keyvault_certificates::{
    models::{
        CertificatePolicy, CreateCertificateParameters, IssuerParameters,
        X509CertificateProperties,
    },
    ResourceExt,
};

let policy = CertificatePolicy {
    x509_certificate_properties: Some(X509CertificateProperties {
        subject: Some("CN=example.com".into()),
        ..Default::default()
    }),
    issuer_parameters: Some(IssuerParameters {
        name: Some("Self".into()),
        ..Default::default()
    }),
    ..Default::default()
};
let body = CreateCertificateParameters {
    certificate_policy: Some(policy),
    ..Default::default()
};

// Poller implements IntoFuture — await directly for completion
let cert = client
    .begin_create_certificate("cert-name", body.try_into()?, None)?
    .await?
    .into_model()?;

println!(
    "Name: {:?}, Version: {:?}",
    cert.resource_id()?.name,
    cert.resource_id()?.version,
);

Update Certificate Properties

use azure_security_keyvault_certificates::models::UpdateCertificatePropertiesParameters;
use std::collections::HashMap;

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

client
    .update_certificate_properties("cert-name", params.try_into()?, None)
    .await?
    .into_model()?;

Delete Certificate

client.delete_certificate("cert-name", None).await?;

List Certificates (Pagination)

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

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

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

Signing with a Certificate's Key

Certificates in Key Vault have an associated key. Use the Key Vault Keys SDK for crypto operations:

use azure_security_keyvault_keys::{
    models::{KeyClientSignOptions, SignParameters, SignatureAlgorithm},
    KeyClient,
};

let key_client = KeyClient::new(
    "https://<vault-name>.vault.azure.net/",
    credential.clone(),
    None,
)?;

// Sign with the certificate's EC key
let digest = vec![0u8; 32]; // SHA-256 digest
let body = SignParameters {
    algorithm: Some(SignatureAlgorithm::Es256),
    value: Some(digest),
};

let result = key_client
    .sign(
        "cert-name",
        body.try_into()?,
        Some(KeyClientSignOptions {
            key_version: Some("<certificate-version>".to_string()),
            ..Default::default()
        }),
    )
    .await?
    .into_model()?;
println!("Signature: {:?}", result.result);

Certificate Formats

Format	Content Type	Use Case
PKCS#12	application/x-pkcs12	Bundled cert + private key
PEM	application/x-pem-file	Base64-encoded, common in Linux/web

RBAC Roles

For Entra ID auth, assign one of these roles:

Role	Access
Key Vault Certificate User	Use certificates
Key Vault Certificates Officer	Full certificate 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 certificate name/version from IDs
7. LROs — begin_create_certificate returns a Poller; just .await for completion (clients should rarely poll for status)
8. Reuse clients — CertificateClient is thread-safe; create once, share across tasks
9. 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_certificates/latest/azure_security_keyvault_certificates
crates.io	https://crates.io/crates/azure_security_keyvault_certificates
Source Code	https://github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-rust/tree/main/sdk/keyvault/azure_security_keyvault_certificates