diff --git a/data-prepper-plugins/kafka-plugins/src/integrationTest/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/plugins/kafka/buffer/KafkaBufferIT.java b/data-prepper-plugins/kafka-plugins/src/integrationTest/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/plugins/kafka/buffer/KafkaBufferIT.java
index 2d76dd488a..7989f5dd8d 100644
--- a/data-prepper-plugins/kafka-plugins/src/integrationTest/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/plugins/kafka/buffer/KafkaBufferIT.java
+++ b/data-prepper-plugins/kafka-plugins/src/integrationTest/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/plugins/kafka/buffer/KafkaBufferIT.java
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonParseException;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.datatype.jsr310.JavaTimeModule;
+import com.google.protobuf.ByteString;
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.RandomStringUtils;
 import org.apache.kafka.clients.consumer.ConsumerRecord;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeEach;
@@ -27,6 +28,8 @@
 import org.opensearch.dataprepper.plugins.kafka.util.TestConsumer;
 import org.opensearch.dataprepper.plugins.kafka.configuration.KafkaProducerProperties;
 import static org.opensearch.dataprepper.test.helper.ReflectivelySetField.setField;
+
+import org.opensearch.dataprepper.plugins.kafka.util.TestProducer;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 
@@ -283,7 +286,8 @@ void writeBytes_puts_correctly_formatted_data_in_protobuf_wrapper() throws Excep
 
     @Nested
     class Encrypted {
-        private Cipher cipher;
+        private Cipher decryptCipher;
+        private Cipher encryptCipher;
 
         @BeforeEach
         void setUp() throws NoSuchAlgorithmException, InvalidKeyException, NoSuchPaddingException {
@@ -291,8 +295,10 @@ void setUp() throws NoSuchAlgorithmException, InvalidKeyException, NoSuchPadding
             aesKeyGenerator.init(256);
             final SecretKey secretKey = aesKeyGenerator.generateKey();
 
-            cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES");
-            cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, secretKey);
+            decryptCipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES");
+            decryptCipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, secretKey);
+            encryptCipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES");
+            encryptCipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, secretKey);
             final byte[] base64Bytes = Base64.getEncoder().encode(secretKey.getEncoded());
             final String aesKey = new String(base64Bytes);
 
@@ -359,7 +365,7 @@ void write_puts_correctly_formatted_and_encrypted_data_in_Kafka_topic() throws T
             assertThat(innerData, notNullValue());
             assertThrows(JsonParseException.class, () -> objectMapper.readValue(innerData, Map.class));
 
-            final byte[] deserializedBytes = cipher.doFinal(innerData);
+            final byte[] deserializedBytes = decryptCipher.doFinal(innerData);
 
             final Map<String, Object> actualEventData = objectMapper.readValue(deserializedBytes, Map.class);
             assertThat(actualEventData, notNullValue());
@@ -401,10 +407,47 @@ void writeBytes_puts_correctly_formatted_and_encrypted_data_in_Kafka_topic() thr
             assertThat(innerData, notNullValue());
             assertThat(innerData, not(equalTo(writtenBytes)));
 
-            final byte[] decryptedBytes = cipher.doFinal(innerData);
+            final byte[] decryptedBytes = decryptCipher.doFinal(innerData);
 
             assertThat(decryptedBytes, equalTo(writtenBytes));
         }
+
+        @Test
+        void read_decrypts_data_from_the_predefined_key() throws IllegalBlockSizeException, BadPaddingException {
+            final KafkaBuffer objectUnderTest = createObjectUnderTest();
+            final TestProducer testProducer = new TestProducer(bootstrapServersCommaDelimited, topicName);
+
+            final Record<Event> record = createRecord();
+            final byte[] unencryptedBytes = record.getData().toJsonString().getBytes();
+            final byte[] encryptedBytes = encryptCipher.doFinal(unencryptedBytes);
+
+            final KafkaBufferMessage.BufferData bufferedData = KafkaBufferMessage.BufferData.newBuilder()
+                    .setMessageFormat(KafkaBufferMessage.MessageFormat.MESSAGE_FORMAT_BYTES)
+                    .setData(ByteString.copyFrom(encryptedBytes))
+                    .build();
+
+            final byte[] unencryptedKeyBytes = createRandomBytes();
+            final byte[] encryptedKeyBytes = encryptCipher.doFinal(unencryptedKeyBytes);
+
+            final KafkaBufferMessage.BufferData keyData = KafkaBufferMessage.BufferData.newBuilder()
+                    .setMessageFormat(KafkaBufferMessage.MessageFormat.MESSAGE_FORMAT_BYTES)
+                    .setData(ByteString.copyFrom(encryptedKeyBytes))
+                    .build();
+
+            testProducer.publishRecord(keyData.toByteArray(), bufferedData.toByteArray());
+
+            final Map.Entry<Collection<Record<Event>>, CheckpointState> readResult = objectUnderTest.read(10_000);
+
+            assertThat(readResult, notNullValue());
+            assertThat(readResult.getKey(), notNullValue());
+            assertThat(readResult.getKey().size(), equalTo(1));
+
+            final Record<Event> onlyResult = readResult.getKey().stream().iterator().next();
+
+            assertThat(onlyResult, notNullValue());
+            assertThat(onlyResult.getData(), notNullValue());
+            assertThat(onlyResult.getData().toMap(), equalTo(record.getData().toMap()));
+        }
     }
 
     private byte[] createRandomBytes() {
diff --git a/data-prepper-plugins/kafka-plugins/src/integrationTest/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/plugins/kafka/util/TestProducer.java b/data-prepper-plugins/kafka-plugins/src/integrationTest/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/plugins/kafka/util/TestProducer.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..54bb30e59c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/data-prepper-plugins/kafka-plugins/src/integrationTest/java/org/opensearch/dataprepper/plugins/kafka/util/TestProducer.java
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright OpenSearch Contributors
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+ */
+
+package org.opensearch.dataprepper.plugins.kafka.util;
+
+import org.apache.kafka.clients.consumer.ConsumerConfig;
+import org.apache.kafka.clients.producer.KafkaProducer;
+import org.apache.kafka.clients.producer.Producer;
+import org.apache.kafka.clients.producer.ProducerRecord;
+import org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.ByteArraySerializer;
+
+import java.util.Properties;
+import java.util.UUID;
+
+/**
+ * Utility class to produce data to Kafka to help with testing.
+ */
+public class TestProducer {
+    private final Producer<byte[], byte[]> kafkaProducer;
+    private final String topicName;
+
+    public TestProducer(final String bootstrapServersCommaDelimited, final String topicName) {
+        this.topicName = topicName;
+        final String testGroupId = UUID.randomUUID().toString();
+        final Properties kafkaProperties = new Properties();
+        kafkaProperties.setProperty(ConsumerConfig.BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS_CONFIG, bootstrapServersCommaDelimited);
+        kafkaProperties.setProperty(ConsumerConfig.GROUP_ID_CONFIG, testGroupId);
+        kafkaProperties.setProperty(ConsumerConfig.AUTO_OFFSET_RESET_CONFIG, "earliest");
+        kafkaProducer = new KafkaProducer<>(kafkaProperties, new ByteArraySerializer(), new ByteArraySerializer());
+        kafkaProducer.flush();
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Publishes a single record to Kafka.
+     *
+     * @param key The key as a byte[]
+     * @param value The value as a byte[]
+     */
+    public void publishRecord(final byte[] key, final byte[] value) {
+        final ProducerRecord<byte[], byte[]> producerRecord = new ProducerRecord<>(topicName, key, value);
+        kafkaProducer.send(producerRecord);
+        kafkaProducer.flush();
+    }
+}