A.16 MySQL 8.0 FAQ: InnoDB Tablespace Encryption

Yes. InnoDB tablespace encryption is designed to provide customers with the ability to transparently apply encryption within the database without impacting existing applications. Returning data in encrypted format would break most existing applications. InnoDB tablespace encryption provides the benefit of encryption without the overhead associated with traditional database encryption solutions, which would typically require expensive and substantial changes to applications, database triggers, and views.

There is no additional storage overhead. According to internal benchmarks, performance overhead amounts to a single digit percentage difference.

InnoDB tablespace encryption supports the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES256) block-based encryption algorithm. It uses Electronic Codebook (ECB) block encryption mode for tablespace key encryption and Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) block encryption mode for data encryption.

No, it is not possible to use other encryption algorithms. The provided encryption algorithm is broadly accepted.

InnoDB tablespace encryption supports all indexes transparently.

InnoDB tablespace encryption supports all supported data types. There is no data length limitation.

Data encrypted by the InnoDB tablespace encryption feature is decrypted when it is read from the tablespace file. Thus, if the data is on the network, it is in clear-text form. However, data on the network can be encrypted using MySQL network encryption, which encrypts data traveling to and from a database using SSL/TLS.

With InnoDB tablespace encryption, in-memory data is decrypted, which provides complete transparency.

Compliance with the PCI-DSS standard requires that credit card numbers (Primary Account Number, or 'PAN') be stored in encrypted form. Breach Notification Laws (for example, CA SB 1386, CA AB 1950, and similar laws in 43+ more US states) require encryption of first name, last name, driver license number, and other PII data. In early 2008, CA AB 1298 added medical and health insurance information to PII data. Additionally, industry specific privacy and security standards may require encryption of certain assets. For example, assets such as pharmaceutical research results, oil field exploration results, financial contracts, or personal data of law enforcement informants may require encryption. In the health care industry, the privacy of patient data, health records and X-ray images is of the highest importance.

There are symmetric and asymmetric encryption APIs in MySQL that can be used to manually encrypt data within the database. However, the application must manage encryption keys and perform required encryption and decryption operations by calling API functions. InnoDB tablespace encryption requires no application changes, is transparent to end users, and provides automated, built-in key management.

Yes. It is supported for encrypted file-per-table tablespaces. For more information, see Exporting Encrypted Tablespaces.

Customers using InnoDB tablespace encryption receive the full benefit of compression because compression is applied before data blocks are encrypted.

Yes. Because these utilities create logical backups, the data dumped from encrypted tables is not encrypted.

InnoDB tablespace encryption uses a two tier key mechanism. When tablespace encryption is used, individual tablespace keys are stored in the header of the underlying tablespace data file. Tablespace keys are encrypted using the master encryption key. The master encryption key is generated when tablespace encryption is enabled, and is stored outside the database. The master encryption key is rotated using the ALTER INSTANCE ROTATE INNODB MASTER KEY statement, which generates a new master encryption key, stores the key, and rotates the key into use.

Transferring data from one tablespace to another is not required. To encrypt data in an InnoDB file-per-table tablespace, run ALTER TABLE tbl_name ENCRYPTION='Y'. To encrypt a general tablespace, run ALTER TABLESPACE tablespace_name ENCRYPTION='Y'. Encryption support for general tablespaces was introduced in MySQL 8.0.13.