Provides detailed information about a KMS key. You can run
DescribeKey on a
customer managed key or an
Amazon Web Services managed key.
This detailed information includes the key ARN, creation date (and deletion date, if applicable), the key state, and the origin and expiration date (if any) of the key material. It includes fields, like
KeySpec, that help you distinguish different types of KMS keys. It also displays the key usage (encryption, signing, or generating and verifying MACs) and the algorithms that the KMS key supports.
For
multi-Region keys,
DescribeKey displays the primary key and all related replica keys. For KMS keys in
CloudHSM key stores, it includes information about the key store, such as the key store ID and the CloudHSM cluster ID. For KMS keys in
external key stores, it includes the custom key store ID and the ID of the external key.
DescribeKey does not return the following information:
- Aliases associated with the KMS key. To get this information, use ListAliases.
- Whether automatic key rotation is enabled on the KMS key. To get this information, use GetKeyRotationStatus. Also, some key states prevent a KMS key from being automatically rotated. For details, see How Automatic Key Rotation Works in the Key Management Service Developer Guide.
- Tags on the KMS key. To get this information, use ListResourceTags.
- Key policies and grants on the KMS key. To get this information, use GetKeyPolicy and ListGrants.
In general,
DescribeKey is a non-mutating operation. It returns data about KMS keys, but doesn't change them. However, Amazon Web Services services use
DescribeKey to create
Amazon Web Services managed keys from a
predefined Amazon Web Services alias with no key ID.
Cross-account use: Yes. To perform this operation with a KMS key in a different Amazon Web Services account, specify the key ARN or alias ARN in the value of the
KeyId parameter.
Required permissions:
kms:DescribeKey (key policy)
Related operations:Eventual consistency: The KMS API follows an eventual consistency model. For more information, see
KMS eventual consistency.