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How to check if external hard drive is encrypted and type of encryption (128,256-bit)?

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  • The first thing, if your external disk is encrypted, when you plug it and open it, a password is required.
    – user415185
    Commented Nov 2, 2021 at 17:13
  • What I had meant was when I use 'diskutil apfs list' it lists volumes, but some of them miss rows with 'Encryption' field information. I was wondering if I could get information on key size.
    – Noz_Char
    Commented Nov 2, 2021 at 18:34
  • You can try diskutil info diskXsY
    – user415185
    Commented Nov 2, 2021 at 18:51
  • @Jean_JD that shows FileVault Yes for me and not a specific key length or implementation.
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Nov 2, 2021 at 20:08
  • But if encryption is run on >=10.9, FileVault default key is 256 bit. So if FileVault = Yes = 256 bit (I assume). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FileVault
    – Noz_Char
    Commented Nov 2, 2021 at 21:30

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Apple encrypts disks with APFS currently and before that using Core Storage. You can get security information from the security white paper:

I believe macOS uses 256 key length across the board, but can’t find that from the command line yet.

Open the terminal if you prefer command line solutions - these two commands will dump all encrypted volumes:

diskutil apfs list
diskutil cs list

If you prefer a graphical tool, you can open the Disk Utility (use spotlight or open the Utilities folder within the Applications folder) to inspect each drive as you connect them.

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  • And how to get information on key size?
    – Noz_Char
    Commented Nov 2, 2021 at 18:28
  • I’ve edited this as best as I can find documented @Noz_Char I believe it’s 128 + 128 at the shortest key length for key plus cipher but can’t yet be certain.
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Nov 2, 2021 at 20:09
  • Thank you @bmike! Found this also: apple.stackexchange.com/questions/356638/…
    – Noz_Char
    Commented Nov 2, 2021 at 21:26

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