ENCRYPTBYCERT (Transact-SQL)

certificate_ID

The ID of a certificate in the database. int.

cleartext

A string of data that will be encrypted with the certificate.

@cleartext

A variable of type nvarchar, char, varchar, binary, varbinary, or nchar containing data that will be encrypted with the public key of the certificate.

varbinary with a maximum size of 8,000 bytes.

This function encrypts data with the public key of a certificate. The ciphertext can only be decrypted with the corresponding private key. Such asymmetric transformations are very costly compared to encryption and decryption using a symmetric key. Asymmetric encryption is therefore not recommended when working with large datasets such as user data in tables.

This example encrypts the plaintext stored in @cleartext with the certificate called JanainaCert02. The encrypted data is inserted into table ProtectedData04.

INSERT INTO [AdventureWorks2012].[ProtectedData04] 
    VALUES ( N'Data encrypted by certificate ''Shipping04''',
    EncryptByCert(Cert_ID('JanainaCert02'), @cleartext) );
GO

Reference

Concepts