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Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-06 08:49:30 +08:00

6.4 KiB

KMS Guide

Silo uses a key-management-system (KMS) to support SSE-S3. If a client requests SSE-S3, or auto-encryption is enabled, the Silo server encrypts each object with a unique object key which is protected by a master key managed by the KMS.

Quick Start

Silo supports KMS integration through a KES-compatible endpoint. Deploy and control your own KES instance, create a dedicated client identity and key, and then configure Silo with the compatibility environment variables below. Do not use a public or shared KES instance for real data.

1. Set the Silo-to-KES configuration

export MINIO_KMS_KES_ENDPOINT=https://kes.example.com:7373
export MINIO_KMS_KES_KEY_FILE=/etc/silo/kes/client.key
export MINIO_KMS_KES_CERT_FILE=/etc/silo/kes/client.crt
export MINIO_KMS_KES_KEY_NAME=silo-default-key

2. Start the Silo server

export MINIO_ROOT_USER=minio
export MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD=silo123
silo server ~/export

The certificate, private key, KES policy, and named key must be provisioned by the administrator. Protect the client private key and use TLS verification in every environment.

Configuration Guides

A typical Silo deployment that uses a KMS for SSE-S3 looks like this:

    ┌────────────┐
    │ ┌──────────┴─┬─────╮          ┌────────────┐
    └─┤ ┌──────────┴─┬───┴──────────┤ ┌──────────┴─┬─────────────────╮
      └─┤ ┌──────────┴─┬─────┬──────┴─┤ KES Server ├─────────────────┤
        └─┤   Silo    ├─────╯        └────────────┘            ┌────┴────┐
          └────────────┘                                        │   KMS   │
                                                                └─────────┘

In a given setup, there are n Silo instances talking to m KES servers but only 1 central KMS. The most simple setup consists of 1 Silo server or cluster talking to 1 KMS via 1 KES server.

The main difference between various Silo-KMS deployments is the KMS implementation. The following table helps you select the right option for your use case:

KMS Purpose
Hashicorp Vault Local KMS. Silo and KMS on-prem (Recommended)
AWS-KMS + SecretsManager Cloud KMS. Silo in combination with a managed KMS installation
Gemalto KeySecure /Thales CipherTrust Local KMS. Silo and KMS On-Premises.
Google Cloud Platform SecretManager Cloud KMS. Silo in combination with a managed KMS installation
FS Local testing or development (Not recommended for production)

The Silo-to-KES configuration is the same regardless of the KMS implementation. Consult the KES project documentation for the selected keystore.

Further references

Auto Encryption

Auto-Encryption is useful when Silo administrator wants to ensure that all data stored on Silo is encrypted at rest.

Silo automatically encrypts all objects on buckets if KMS is successfully configured and bucket encryption configuration is enabled for each bucket as shown below:

mc encrypt set sse-s3 mysilo/bucket/

Verify if Silo has sse-s3 enabled

mc encrypt info mysilo/bucket/
Auto encryption 'sse-s3' is enabled

Silo automatically encrypts all objects on buckets if KMS is successfully configured and following ENV is enabled:

export MINIO_KMS_AUTO_ENCRYPTION=on

Verify auto-encryption

Note that auto-encryption only affects requests without S3 encryption headers. So, if a S3 client sends e.g. SSE-C headers, Silo will encrypt the object with the key sent by the client and won't reach out to the configured KMS.

To verify auto-encryption, use the following mc command:

mc cp test.file mysilo/bucket/
test.file:              5 B / 5 B  ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓  100.00% 337 B/s 0s
mc stat mysilo/bucket/test.file
Name      : test.file
...
Encrypted :
  X-Amz-Server-Side-Encryption: AES256

Encrypted Private Key

Silo supports encrypted KES client private keys. Therefore, you can use an password-protected private keys for MINIO_KMS_KES_KEY_FILE.

When using password-protected private keys for accessing KES you need to provide the password via:

export MINIO_KMS_KES_KEY_PASSWORD=<your-password>

Note that Silo only supports encrypted private keys - not encrypted certificates. Certificates are no secrets and sent in plaintext as part of the TLS handshake.

Explore Further