Using server-side encryption with AWS KMS keys (SSE-KMS) in table buckets
Topics
Table buckets have a default encryption configuration that automatically encrypts tables by using server-side encryption with Amazon S3 managed keys (SSE-S3). This encryption applies to all tables in your S3 table buckets, and comes at no cost to you.
If you need more control over your encryption keys, such as managing key rotation and access policy grants, you can configure your table buckets to use server-side encryption with AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) keys (SSE-KMS). The security controls in AWS KMS can help you meet encryption-related compliance requirements. For more information about SSE-KMS, see Using server-side encryption with AWS KMS keys (SSE-KMS).
How SSE-KMS works for tables and table buckets
SSE-KMS with table buckets differs from SSE-KMS in general purpose buckets in the following ways:
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You can specify encryption settings for table buckets and individual tables.
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You can only use customer managed keys with SSE-KMS. AWS managed keys aren't supported.
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You must grant permissions for certain roles and AWS service principals to access your AWS KMS key. For more information, see Permission requirements for S3 Tables SSE-KMS encryption. This includes granting access to:
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The S3 maintenance principal – for performing table maintenance on encrypted tables
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Your S3 Tables integration role – for working with encrypted tables in AWS analytics services
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Your client access role – for direct access to encrypted tables from Apache Iceberg clients
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The S3 Metadata principal – for updating encrypted S3 metadata tables
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Encrypted tables use table-level keys that minimize the number of requests made to AWS KMS to make working with SSE-KMS encrypted tables more cost effective.
- SSE-KMS encryption for table buckets
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When you create a table bucket, you can choose SSE-KMS as the default encryption type and select a specific KMS key that will be used for encryption. Any tables created within that bucket will automatically inherit these encryption settings from their table bucket. You can use the AWS CLI, S3 API, or AWS SDKs to modify or remove the default encryption settings on a table bucket at any time. When you modify a encryption settings on a table bucket those settings apply only to new tables created in that bucket. Encryption settings for pre-existing tables are not changed. For more information, see Specifying encryption for table buckets.
- SSE-KMS encryption for tables
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You also have an option to encrypt an individual table with a different KMS key regardless of the bucket's default encryption configuration. To set encryption for an individual table, you must specify the desired encryption key at the time of table creation. If you want to change the encryption for an existing table, then you'll need to create a table with desired key and copy data from old table to the new one. For more information, see Specifying encryption for tables.
When using AWS KMS encryption, S3 Tables automatically creates unique table-level data keys that encrypt new objects associated with each table. These keys are used for a limited time period, minimizing the need for additional AWS KMS requests during encryption operations and reducing the cost of encryption. This is similar to S3 Bucket Keys for SSE-KMS.
Monitoring and Auditing SSE-KMS encryption for tables and table buckets
To audit the usage of your AWS KMS keys for your SSE-KMS encrypted data, you can use
AWS CloudTrail logs. You can get insight into your cryptographic
operations, such as GenerateDataKey and Decrypt.
CloudTrail supports numerous attribute
values for filtering your search, including event name, user name, and event
source.
You can track encryption configuration requests for Amazon S3 tables and table buckets by using CloudTrail events. The following API event names are used in CloudTrail logs:
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s3tables:PutTableBucketEncryption -
s3tables:GetTableBucketEncryption -
s3tables:DeleteTableBucketEncryption -
s3tables:GetTableEncryption -
s3tables:CreateTable -
s3tables:CreateTableBucket
Note
EventBridge isn't supported for table buckets.
