Azure keyvault certificates rust

Azure Key Vault Certificates library for Rust

Manage X.509 certificates for TLS/SSL, code signing, and authentication.

Use this skill when:

• An app needs to create or manage X.509 certificates in Key Vault from Rust
• You need self-signed or CA-issued certificates
• You need long-running operations (LRO) for certificate issuance
• You need to sign data using a certificate's key

IMPORTANT: Only use the official azure_security_keyvault_certificates crate published by the azure-sdk crates.io user. Do NOT use unofficial or community crates. Official crates use underscores in names and none have version 0.21.0.

Installation

cargo add azure_security_keyvault_certificates azure_identity tokio futures

Do not add azure_core directly to Cargo.toml. It is re-exported by azure_security_keyvault_certificates.

Environment Variables

AZURE_KEYVAULT_URL=https://<vault-name>.vault.azure.net/ # Required for all operations

Authentication

use azure_identity::DeveloperToolsCredential;
use azure_security_keyvault_certificates::CertificateClient;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    // Local dev: DeveloperToolsCredential. Production: use ManagedIdentityCredential.
    let credential = DeveloperToolsCredential::new(None)?;
    let client = CertificateClient::new(
        "https://<vault-name>.vault.azure.net/",
        credential.clone(),
        None,
    )?;

    let cert = client
        .get_certificate("cert-name", None)
        .await?
        .into_model()?;
    println!("Certificate: {:?}", cert.id);
    Ok(())
}

Core Workflow

Create Self-Signed Certificate (LRO)

Creating a certificate is a long-running operation. Poller<T> implements IntoFuture — just .await:

use azure_security_keyvault_certificates::{
    models::{
        CertificateCreateParameters, IssuerParameters, SecretProperties,
        SubjectAlternativeNames, X509CertificateProperties,
    },
    ResourceExt,
};

let body = CertificateCreateParameters {
    certificate_policy: Some(Box::new(
        azure_security_keyvault_certificates::models::CertificatePolicy {
            issuer_parameters: Some(IssuerParameters {
                name: Some("Self".into()),
                ..Default::default()
            }),
            secret_properties: Some(SecretProperties {
                content_type: Some("application/x-pkcs12".into()),
                ..Default::default()
            }),
            x509_certificate_properties: Some(X509CertificateProperties {
                subject: Some("CN=example.com".into()),
                subject_alternative_names: Some(SubjectAlternativeNames {
                    dns_names: Some(vec!["example.com".into()]),
                    ..Default::default()
                }),
                ..Default::default()
            }),
            ..Default::default()
        },
    )),
    ..Default::default()
};

// Poller implements IntoFuture — await directly for completion
let cert = client
    .create_certificate("cert-name", body.try_into()?, None)?
    .await?
    .into_model()?;

println!(
    "Name: {:?}, Version: {:?}",
    cert.resource_id()?.name,
    cert.resource_id()?.version,
);

Update Certificate Properties

use azure_security_keyvault_certificates::models::CertificateUpdateParameters;
use std::collections::HashMap;

#[allow(clippy::needless_update)]
let params = CertificateUpdateParameters {
    tags: Some(HashMap::from_iter(vec![("env".into(), "prod".into())])),
    ..Default::default()
};

client
    .update_certificate("cert-name", params.try_into()?, None)
    .await?
    .into_model()?;

Delete Certificate

client.delete_certificate("cert-name", None).await?;

List Certificates (Pagination)

list_certificate_properties returns a Pager<T> — iterate items directly:

use azure_security_keyvault_certificates::ResourceExt;
use futures::TryStreamExt as _;

let mut pager = client.list_certificate_properties(None)?;
while let Some(cert) = pager.try_next().await? {
    println!("Found: {}", cert.resource_id()?.name);
}

Signing with a Certificate's Key

Certificates in Key Vault have an associated key. Use the Key Vault Keys SDK for crypto operations:

use azure_security_keyvault_keys::{
    models::{KeySignParameters, SignatureAlgorithm},
    KeyClient,
};

let key_client = KeyClient::new(
    "https://<vault-name>.vault.azure.net/",
    credential.clone(),
    None,
)?;

// Sign with the certificate's EC key
let digest = vec![0u8; 32]; // SHA-256 digest
let sign_params = KeySignParameters {
    algorithm: Some(SignatureAlgorithm::Es256),
    value: Some(digest),
    ..Default::default()
};

let result = key_client
    .sign("cert-name", "", sign_params.try_into()?, None)
    .await?
    .into_model()?;
println!("Signature: {:?}", result.result);

Certificate Formats

Format	Content Type	Use Case
PKCS#12	application/x-pkcs12	Bundled cert + private key
PEM	application/x-pem-file	Base64-encoded, common in Linux/web

RBAC Roles

For Entra ID auth, assign one of these roles:

Role	Access
Key Vault Certificate User	Use certificates
Key Vault Certificates Officer	Full certificate management

Best Practices

1. Use DeveloperToolsCredential for local dev, ManagedIdentityCredential for production — the Rust SDK does not have DefaultAzureCredential
2. Never hardcode credentials — use environment variables or managed identity
3. Use ..Default::default() with #[allow(clippy::needless_update)] for model struct updates
4. Use ResourceExt to extract certificate name/version from IDs
5. LROs — create_certificate returns a Poller; just .await for completion (clients should rarely poll for status)
6. Reuse clients — CertificateClient is thread-safe; create once, share across tasks

Reference Links

Resource	Link
API Reference	https://docs.rs/azure_security_keyvault_certificates
crates.io	https://crates.io/crates/azure_security_keyvault_certificates