ALTER CRYPTOGRAPHIC PROVIDER (Transact-SQL)

provider_name

Name of the Extensible Key Management provider.

Path_of_DLL

Path of the .dll file that implements the SQL Server Extensible Key Management interface.

ENABLE | DISABLE

Enables or disables a provider.

If the provider changes the .dll file that is used to implement Extensible Key Management in SQL Server, you must use the ALTER CRYPTOGRAPHIC PROVIDER statement.

When the .dll file path is updated by using the ALTER CRYPTOGRAPHIC PROVIDER statement, SQL Server performs the following actions:

• Disables the provider.

• Verifies the DLL signature and ensures that the .dll file has the same GUID as the one recorded in the catalog.

• Updates the DLL version in the catalog.

When an EKM provider is set to DISABLE, any attempts on new connections to use the provider with encryption statements will fail.

To disable a provider, all sessions that use the provider must be terminated.

Requires CONTROL permission on the cryptographic provider.

The following example alters a cryptographic provider, called SecurityProvider in SQL Server, to a newer version of a .dll file. This new version is named c:\SecurityProvider\SecurityProvider_v2.dll and is installed on the server. The provider's certificate must be installed on the server.

/* First, disable the provider to perform the upgrade.
This will terminate all open cryptographic sessions */
ALTER CRYPTOGRAPHIC PROVIDER SecurityProvider 
DISABLE;
GO

/* Upgrade the provider .dll file. The GUID must the same
as the previous version, but the version can be different. */
ALTER CRYPTOGRAPHIC PROVIDER SecurityProvider
FROM FILE = 'c:\SecurityProvider\SecurityProvider_v2.dll';
GO

/* Enable the upgraded provider. */
ALTER CRYPTOGRAPHIC PROVIDER SecurityProvider 
ENABLE;
GO

Reference

Concepts