How do I pass a password to hdiutil attach?

Question

I have an encrypted sparsebundle (test.sparsebundle) and it's password is "test", with no quotes.

I'd like to automate opening that file.

I have tried

echo "test" | hdiutil attach -stdinpass test.sparsebundle

and

echo test | hdiutil attach -stdinpass test.sparsebundle

But it returns

hdiutil: attach failed - Authentication error

pheon · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-02 16:23:16Z

11

Ah! A little more digging, and careful reading of the man page. I need a null terminated string.

So

printf '%s\0' 'test' | hdiutil attach test.sparsebundle -stdinpass

works.

answered Aug 2, 2015 at 16:23

pheon

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1

If the password has no spaces or characters special to the shell it can be shortened to just: printf test|hdiutil attach test.sparsebundle -stdinpass
– user3439894
Aug 2, 2015 at 16:35
1

The \0 isn't actually needed, but using %s is a good idea -- there are a lot of "special characters" that can trip you up.
– Gordon Davisson
Aug 2, 2015 at 17:13

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