Request Syntax Request Parameters Response Elements Errors Examples See Also

UpdateKeyDescription

Updates the description of a KMS key. To see the description of a KMS key, use DescribeKey.

The KMS key that you use for this operation must be in a compatible key state. For details, see Key states of Amazon KMS keys in the Amazon Key Management Service Developer Guide.

Cross-account use: No. You cannot perform this operation on a KMS key in a different Amazon Web Services account.

Required permissions: kms:UpdateKeyDescription (key policy)

Related operations

Eventual consistency: The Amazon KMS API follows an eventual consistency model. For more information, see Amazon KMS eventual consistency.

Request Syntax


{
   "Description": "string",
   "KeyId": "string"
}

Request Parameters

For information about the parameters that are common to all actions, see Common Parameters.

The request accepts the following data in JSON format.

Note

In the following list, the required parameters are described first.

Description

New description for the KMS key.

Important

Do not include confidential or sensitive information in this field. This field may be displayed in plaintext in CloudTrail logs and other output.

Type: String

Length Constraints: Minimum length of 0. Maximum length of 8192.

Required: Yes

KeyId

Updates the description of the specified KMS key.

Specify the key ID or key ARN of the KMS key.

For example:

Key ID: 1234abcd-12ab-34cd-56ef-1234567890ab
Key ARN: arn:aws:kms:us-east-2:111122223333:key/1234abcd-12ab-34cd-56ef-1234567890ab

To get the key ID and key ARN for a KMS key, use ListKeys or DescribeKey.

Type: String

Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 2048.

Required: Yes

Response Elements

If the action is successful, the service sends back an HTTP 200 response with an empty HTTP body.

Errors

For information about the errors that are common to all actions, see Common Errors.

DependencyTimeoutException

The system timed out while trying to fulfill the request. You can retry the request.

HTTP Status Code: 500

InvalidArnException

The request was rejected because a specified ARN, or an ARN in a key policy, is not valid.

HTTP Status Code: 400

KMSInternalException

The request was rejected because an internal exception occurred. The request can be retried.

HTTP Status Code: 500

KMSInvalidStateException

The request was rejected because the state of the specified resource is not valid for this request.

This exceptions means one of the following:

The key state of the KMS key is not compatible with the operation.

To find the key state, use the DescribeKey operation. For more information about which key states are compatible with each Amazon KMS operation, see Key states of Amazon KMS keys in the Amazon Key Management Service Developer Guide .
For cryptographic operations on KMS keys in custom key stores, this exception represents a general failure with many possible causes. To identify the cause, see the error message that accompanies the exception.

HTTP Status Code: 400

NotFoundException

The request was rejected because the specified entity or resource could not be found.

HTTP Status Code: 400

Examples

Example Request

The following example is formatted for legibility.


POST / HTTP/1.1
Host: kms.us-east-2.amazonaws.com
Content-Length: 150
X-Amz-Target: TrentService.UpdateKeyDescription
X-Amz-Date: 20161212T201249Z
Content-Type: application/x-amz-json-1.1
Authorization: AWS4-HMAC-SHA256\
 Credential=AKIAI44QH8DHBEXAMPLE/20161212/us-east-2/kms/aws4_request,\
 SignedHeaders=content-type;host;x-amz-date;x-amz-target,\
 Signature=cd81d09965e5df1156eb0416ec8b2e3f9dea9dbc4ca9285b472c319bcbbaec71

{
  "KeyId": "1234abcd-12ab-34cd-56ef-1234567890ab",
  "Description": "Example description that explains what this KMS key is used for."
}

Example Response

This example illustrates one usage of UpdateKeyDescription.


HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Server
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2016 20:12:50 GMT
Content-Type: application/x-amz-json-1.1
Content-Length: 0
Connection: keep-alive
x-amzn-RequestId: 5b089880-c0a7-11e6-89c4-3d6791a06780