Restoring database to another server cannot open SYMMETRIC key

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Restoring database to another server cannot open SYMMETRIC key

diogenes1331

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Points: 1420
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January 5, 2009 at 10:24 am

#383679

After restoring the database into a another server, I run the following T-SQL command:
OPEN MASTER KEY DECRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'password'
ALTER MASTER KEY ADD ENCRYPTION BY SERVICE MASTER KEY
and when I try to open the SYMMETRIC key to retrieve the data on the encrypted field with a SELECT statement I get the following message (the same SELECT statement on the original server works fine as expected).
Msg 15466, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
An error occurred during decryption.
(402 row(s) affected)
Msg 15315, Level 16, State 1, Line 7
The key 'SymKey' is not open. Please open the key before using it.
Thanks.

Viewing 14 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)

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K. Brian Kelley SSC Guru Points: 114642 More actions · Answer 1

What is the symmetric key encrypted with? If it's a certificate or asymmetric key, are you able to open that key explicitly?

K. Brian Kelley
@kbriankelley

diogenes1331 Default port Points: 1420 More actions · Answer 2

Thanks for your help.

>>>What is the symmetric key encrypted with?

>>>If it's a certificate or asymmetric key, are you able to open that key explicitly?

The symmetric key is encrypted with a Certificate.

No, I am not able to open the key. When I try to open the key with the statement:

OPEN SYMMETRIC KEY SymKey

DECRYPTION BY CERTIFICATE Cert

I get the error

Msg 15466, Level 16, State 1, Line 1

An error occurred during decryption.

I have also imported the Service Master Key from the original server and I still have the same problems.

K. Brian Kelley SSC Guru Points: 114642 More actions · Answer 3

And the certificate was encrypted by the database master key and not a password? If you export the database master key from the original server and restore it on the new, can you open the database master key manually and then everything works?

K. Brian Kelley
@kbriankelley

diogenes1331 Default port Points: 1420 More actions · Answer 4

And the certificate was encrypted by the database master key and not a password?

Yes it was encrypted by the DBMK because it was not encrypted with a password.

If you export the database master key from the original server and restore it on the new, can you open the database master key manually and then everything works?

No, I open the key by using the following command:

OPEN MASTER KEY DECRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'pwd'

and then I try to open the symmetric key and it gives me the error.

K. Brian Kelley SSC Guru Points: 114642 More actions · Answer 5

Can you open the certificate? And what function are you using to open the Symmetric Key and return the data?

K. Brian Kelley
@kbriankelley

diogenes1331 Default port Points: 1420 More actions · Answer 6

Before continuing, please let me thank you for your help so far.

After your previous posting I went ahead and tried the following in the new server:

DECLARE @plaintext nvarchar(2000), @cyphertext nvarchar(2000)

SET @plaintext = N'AAA'

SET @cyphertext = EncryptByCert(Cert_ID('MyCert'), @plaintext)

PRINT @cyphertext

SELECT CAST(DecryptByCert(Cert_ID('MyCert'), @cyphertext) AS NVARCHAR)

This works in the original server but in the one where I restored the database instead of getting AAA at the end of the above code I get NULL. So it appears that the certificate can be used to encrypt but not to decrypt. However, when I run the same code in the original server, I get AAA at the end.

I hope this answers your question.

abraham leonido-427616 SSC Enthusiast Points: 135 More actions · Answer 7

Just wondering if you were able to fix the issue.

We have the same issue.

We have 3 DB servers - dev , test and Prod. We have no decryption problems when we restore the database from Test to Dev.

We have problems when we restore from Prod to Test.

Only difference that I see is that our Prod Server is a Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition. Our Dev and Test servers are Windows 2003 Standard Edition.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

K. Brian Kelley SSC Guru Points: 114642 More actions · Answer 8

Are you able to open the master key on the database?

K. Brian Kelley
@kbriankelley

abraham leonido-427616 SSC Enthusiast Points: 135 More actions · Answer 9

Yes.

OPEN MASTER KEY DECRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'xxxxxx' was successful.

OPEN SYMMETRIC KEY XXX_KEY DECRYPTION BY CERTIFICATE XXX_CERTIFICATE is where we got the following error

'an error occurred during decryption'

Also got the same results for the test script posted by diogenes1331.

When we ran it in our Prod server,we got 'AAA'. When we ran it in the Test server, we got NULL

abraham leonido-427616 SSC Enthusiast Points: 135 More actions · Answer 10

We were able to make it work... Thank you for the posts...

seh0367 SSC Enthusiast Points: 138 More actions · Answer 11

The info in this link seems to work on multiple server movement of the database.

http://www.sqlteam.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=123808

Bret Butler SSC Enthusiast Points: 148 More actions · Answer 12

this will fix it...

OPEN MASTER KEY DECRYPTION BY PASSWORD = <Password>

ALTER MASTER KEY DROP ENCRYPTION BY SERVICE MASTER KEY;

ALTER MASTER KEY ADD ENCRYPTION BY SERVICE MASTER KEY;

CLOSE MASTER KEY;

Addams England SSC Rookie Points: 43 More actions · Answer 13

I encountered the same issue and the following solution worked for me:

http://www.sqlteam.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=123808

USE [<database>];

GO

OPEN MASTER KEY

DECRYPTION BY PASSWORD = <password>;

ALTER MASTER KEY

DROP ENCRYPTION BY SERVICE MASTER KEY;

ALTER MASTER KEY

ADD ENCRYPTION BY SERVICE MASTER KEY;

CLOSE MASTER KEY;

GO