Schedules the deletion of a KMS key. By default, KMS applies a waiting period of 30 days, but you can specify a waiting period of 7-30 days. When this operation is successful, the key state of the KMS key changes to
PendingDeletion and the key can't be used in any cryptographic operations. It remains in this state for the duration of the waiting period. Before the waiting period ends, you can use
CancelKeyDeletion to cancel the deletion of the KMS key. After the waiting period ends, KMS deletes the KMS key, its key material, and all KMS data associated with it, including all aliases that refer to it.
Deleting a KMS key is a destructive and potentially dangerous operation. When a KMS key is deleted, all data that was encrypted under the KMS key is unrecoverable. (The only exception is a multi-Region replica key, or an asymmetric or HMAC KMS key with imported key material.) To prevent the use of a KMS key without deleting it, use DisableKey. You can schedule the deletion of a multi-Region primary key and its replica keys at any time. However, KMS will not delete a multi-Region primary key with existing replica keys. If you schedule the deletion of a primary key with replicas, its key state changes to
PendingReplicaDeletion and it cannot be replicated or used in cryptographic operations. This status can continue indefinitely. When the last of its replicas keys is deleted (not just scheduled), the key state of the primary key changes to
PendingDeletion and its waiting period (
PendingWindowInDays) begins. For details, see
Deleting multi-Region keys in the
Key Management Service Developer Guide.
When KMS
deletes a KMS key from an CloudHSM key store, it makes a best effort to delete the associated key material from the associated CloudHSM cluster. However, you might need to manually
delete the orphaned key material from the cluster and its backups.
Deleting a KMS key from an external key store has no effect on the associated external key. However, for both types of custom key stores, deleting a KMS key is destructive and irreversible. You cannot decrypt ciphertext encrypted under the KMS key by using only its associated external key or CloudHSM key. Also, you cannot recreate a KMS key in an external key store by creating a new KMS key with the same key material.
For more information about scheduling a KMS key for deletion, see
Deleting KMS keys in the
Key Management Service Developer Guide.
The KMS key that you use for this operation must be in a compatible key state. For details, see
Key states of KMS keys in the
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:ScheduleKeyDeletion (key policy)
Related operationsEventual consistency: The KMS API follows an eventual consistency model. For more information, see
KMS eventual consistency.