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What to Do If You Accidentally Delete KMS Key Material: A Recovery Guide

Ekant Mate (AWS APN Ambassador)
Towards AWS
Published in
5 min readDec 19, 2024

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Learn what to do if you accidentally delete KMS key material. Follow this step-by-step guide to restore functionality, prevent disruptions, and protect your production systems.

Introduction

AWS Key Management Service (KMS) is essential for securing sensitive data in your cloud environment. However, KMS keys with imported external key material have a unique vulnerability: deleting the key material doesn’t have a grace period like standard KMS keys.

If you accidentally delete the external key material, it can cause significant disruptions to encrypted resources in your production systems. Instances may fail to start, and data may become inaccessible. The good news? With the right steps, you can recover from this scenario.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through:

  1. Recovering deleted KMS key material by re-importing it.
  2. Validating the functionality of your production systems.
  3. Best practices for preventing future disruptions, including backup and auditing strategies.

Let’s dive in!

1. What Happens When KMS Key Material Is Deleted?

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Published in Towards AWS

Where Cloud Experts, Heroes, Builders, and Developers share their stories, experiences, and solutions.

Written by Ekant Mate (AWS APN Ambassador)

Technologist, Cloud evangelist & Solution Architect specializing in Design, DevOps, Security, Network. Expert advisor, World Tech Enthusiast, Motivational Blog.

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