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

If your code uses azure_core types directly, add azure_core to Cargo.toml. If you only use azure_security_keyvault_certificates re-exports, direct azure_core dependency is optional.

Environment Variables

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

Authentication

Rust Azure SDK code must not use DefaultAzureCredential. The Rust identity crate does not provide that type.

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(())
}

Prefer the crate README/examples when checking LRO and poller usage rather than inferring public behavior from generated internal types.

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::{
        CertificatePolicy, CreateCertificateParameters, IssuerParameters,
        X509CertificateProperties,
    },
    ResourceExt,
};

let policy = CertificatePolicy {
    x509_certificate_properties: Some(X509CertificateProperties {
        subject: Some("CN=example.com".into()),
        ..Default::default()
    }),
    issuer_parameters: Some(IssuerParameters {
        name: Some("Self".into()),
        ..Default::default()
    }),
    ..Default::default()
};
let body = CreateCertificateParameters {
    certificate_policy: Some(policy),
    ..Default::default()
};

// Poller implements IntoFuture — await directly for completion
let cert = client
    .begin_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::UpdateCertificatePropertiesParameters;
use std::collections::HashMap;

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

client
    .update_certificate_properties("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::{KeyClientSignOptions, SignParameters, 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 body = SignParameters {
    algorithm: Some(SignatureAlgorithm::Es256),
    value: Some(digest),
};

let result = key_client
    .sign(
        "cert-name",
        body.try_into()?,
        Some(KeyClientSignOptions {
            key_version: Some("<certificate-version>".to_string()),
            ..Default::default()
        }),
    )
    .await?
    .into_model()?;
println!("Signature: {:?}", result.result);

Certificate Formats

RBAC Roles

For Entra ID auth, assign one of these roles:

Best Practices

1. Use cargo add to manage dependencies, never edit Cargo.toml directly. Add and remove Rust SDK dependencies with cargo commands instead of manual manifest edits.
2. Add azure_core only when importing azure_core types directly. If your code imports azure_core::http::Url, azure_core::http::RequestContent, or azure_core::error::ErrorKind, include azure_core; otherwise a direct dependency is optional.
3. Use DeveloperToolsCredential for local dev, ManagedIdentityCredential for production — Rust does not provide a single DefaultAzureCredential type
4. Never hardcode credentials — use environment variables or managed identity
5. Use ..Default::default() with #[allow(clippy::needless_update)] for model struct updates
6. Use ResourceExt to extract certificate name/version from IDs
7. LROs — begin_create_certificate returns a Poller; just .await for completion (clients should rarely poll for status)
8. Reuse clients — CertificateClient is thread-safe; create once, share across tasks
9. Run cargo clippy -- -D warnings when the prompt, eval, or CI expects lint-clean output

Reference Links