Our DBA has assigned my user account ALL permissions on the certificate, and reference permission on the symmetric key, but when I run this code:

USE AdventureWorks;

OPEN SYMMETRIC KEY TestSymmetricKey

DECRYPTION BY CERTIFICATE TestCert;

UPDATE

Sales.CreditCard_ENCRYPTION

SET

CardNumbENC = EncryptBykey(Key_GUID('TestSymmetricKey'), CardNumber);

SELECT

CardNumber

, CardNumbENC

FROM

Sales.CreditCard_ENCRYPTION;

... gets me this error:

Msg 15334, Level 16, State 1, Line 20

The certificate has a private key that is protected by a user defined password. That password needs to be provided to enable the use of the private key.

If, as mentioned above, CONTROL permission on the cert, and REFERENCE permission on the symmetric key, should allow me to access SQL Server Automatic Key Management to avoid entering the cert password, what went wrong?

Ugh. :crazy: