Ensure all APFS and HFS+ external user storage volumes are encrypted

HighLevel 1Automatedmacos

Description

Apple developed the APFS (Apple File System) structure primarily for flash and solid- state drives. This file structure was first made available in 10.12 and then became the default in 10.13. Apple introduced CoreStorage with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. It is used as the default for formatting on macOS volumes prior to macOS 10.13 High Sierra. All HFS and CoreStorage Volumes should be encrypted. Audit: Fails when any attached external APFS/HFS+ volume reports FileVault: No; no external volumes is compliant.

How it is checked

Audit method: Shell command

shell

[ -x /usr/sbin/diskutil ] || exit 1
out=$(/usr/sbin/diskutil list external | /usr/bin/grep -E 'APFS Volume|Apple_HFS|Logical Volume' | /usr/bin/awk '{print $NF}' | /usr/bin/xargs -n1 /usr/sbin/diskutil info | /usr/bin/grep -E "Volume Name|FileVault")
if printf '%s\n' "$out" | /usr/bin/grep -qE 'FileVault: +No'; then printf '%s\n' "$out"; else echo compliant; fi

Expected output: compliant

How it is fixed

Fix method: Guidance or infrastructure patch

Use Disk Utility to erase a user disk and format as APFS (Encrypted).

Properties

Operating systems: macos-15
Tags: macossystem-access
Reference: CIS Apple macOS 15.0 Sequoia Benchmark v2.1.0 - 5.3.2 Ensure all APFS and HFS+ external user storage volumes are encrypted

Check this host

Run this on a machine you are allowed to audit. The scan is read-only.

shell

tmaegis scan --target macos