What is Encrypted with Search Index Encryption?

The Salesforce search engine is built on the open-source enterprise search platform software Apache Solr. The search index, which stores tokens of record data with links back to the original records stored in the database, is housed within Solr.

The solution applies strong encryption on org-specific search index .fdt, .tim, and .tip file types by using an org-specific AES-256 bit encryption key. The search index is encrypted at the search index segment level, and all search index operations require index blocks to be encrypted in memory.

With Shield Platform Encryption, Search Index Encryption only encrypts the search indexes in the org that holds the Shield Platform Encryption license.

Search Index Encryption uses its own dedicated root key and data encryption key.