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Global Accelerated Learning • Est. 1999
Glossary Term Customer Managed Key (CMK)

Training Camp • Cybersecurity Glossary

What is Customer Managed Key (CMK)?

Customer Managed Key CMK is a customer-controlled encryption key in a cloud KMS, giving authority over rotation, access, and revocation for compliance.

Glossary > Cryptography & PKI > Customer Managed Key (CMK)

Understanding Customer Managed Key (CMK)

A Customer Managed Key CMK is an encryption key that an organization creates, controls, and manages within a cloud provider's key management service rather than relying on default provider-managed keys. CMKs give customers authority over key policies, rotation schedules, access permissions, and the ability to disable or revoke keys, which strengthens data sovereignty and compliance. They are central to envelope encryption and bring-your-own-key strategies across providers such as AWS KMS, Azure Key Vault, and Google Cloud KMS.

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