Azure Key Vault Keys library for 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