diff --git a/encrypted-config-value/src/main/java/com/palantir/config/crypto/KeyWithAlgorithm.java b/encrypted-config-value/src/main/java/com/palantir/config/crypto/KeyWithAlgorithm.java
index f7f0160c..5a81dac0 100644
--- a/encrypted-config-value/src/main/java/com/palantir/config/crypto/KeyWithAlgorithm.java
+++ b/encrypted-config-value/src/main/java/com/palantir/config/crypto/KeyWithAlgorithm.java
@@ -18,6 +18,8 @@
 
 import static com.google.common.base.Preconditions.checkArgument;
 
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonCreator;
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonValue;
 import com.google.common.io.BaseEncoding;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
@@ -34,6 +36,7 @@ public abstract class KeyWithAlgorithm {
     public abstract byte[] getKey();
 
     @Override
+    @JsonValue
     public final String toString() {
         String encodedKeyString = BaseEncoding.base64().encode(getKey());
         return getAlgorithm() + ":" + encodedKeyString;
@@ -51,6 +54,7 @@ public static KeyWithAlgorithm from(String algorithm, byte[] key) {
                 .build();
     }
 
+    @JsonCreator
     public static KeyWithAlgorithm fromString(String keyWithAlgorithm) {
         checkArgument(keyWithAlgorithm.contains(":"), "Key must be in the format <algorithm>:<key in base64>");
 
diff --git a/encrypted-config-value/src/test/java/com/palantir/config/crypto/KeyWithAlgorithmTest.java b/encrypted-config-value/src/test/java/com/palantir/config/crypto/KeyWithAlgorithmTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5b823717
--- /dev/null
+++ b/encrypted-config-value/src/test/java/com/palantir/config/crypto/KeyWithAlgorithmTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2015 Palantir Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package com.palantir.config.crypto;
+
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.is;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertThat;
+
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParseException;
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonProcessingException;
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonMappingException;
+import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+public final class KeyWithAlgorithmTest {
+    private static final ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
+    private static final String kwaString = "AES:rqrvWpLld+wKLOyxJYxQVg==";
+    private static final KeyWithAlgorithm kwa = KeyWithAlgorithm.fromString(kwaString);
+
+    @Test
+    public void testSerialization()
+            throws JsonParseException, JsonMappingException, JsonProcessingException, IOException {
+        String serialized = mapper.writeValueAsString(kwa);
+
+        String expectedSerialization = String.format("\"%s\"", kwaString);
+        assertThat(serialized, is(expectedSerialization));
+
+        KeyWithAlgorithm deserialized = mapper.readValue(serialized, KeyWithAlgorithm.class);
+        assertThat(deserialized, is(kwa));
+    }
+}