Disk encryption

Available in Fleet Premium

In Fleet, you can enforce disk encryption on your macOS hosts. Apple calls this FileVault. If turned on, hosts’ disk encryption keys will be stored in Fleet.

You can also enforce custom macOS settings. Learn how here.

Enforce disk encryption

To enforce disk encryption and have Fleet collect the disk encryption key, we will do the following steps:

Enforce disk encryption
Share migrations with end users
Confirm disk encryption is enforced and Fleet is storing the disk encryption key

Step 1: enforce disk encryption

To enforce disk encryption, choose the "Fleet UI" or "fleetctl" method and follow the steps below.

Fleet UI:

In the Fleet UI, head to the Controls > macOS settings > Disk encryption page. Users with the maintainer and admin roles can access the settings pages.
Choose which team you want to enforce disk encryption on by selecting the desired team in the teams dropdown in the upper left corner. Teams are available in Fleet Premium.
Check the box next to Turn on and select Save.

fleetctl CLI:

Choose which team you want to enforce disk encryption on.

In this example, we'll enforce disk encryption on the "Workstations (canary)" team so that disk encryption only gets enforced on hosts assigned to this team.

Create a workstations-canary-config.yaml file:

apiVersion: v1
kind: team
spec:
  team:
    name: Workstations (canary)
    mdm:
      macos_settings:
        enable_disk_encryption: true
    ...

To enforce settings on hosts that aren't assigned to a team ("No team"), we'll need to create an fleet-config.yaml file:

apiVersion: v1
kind: config
spec:
  mdm:
    macos_settings:
      enable_disk_encryption: true
  ...

Learn more about configuration options for hosts that aren't assigned to a team here.

Set the mdm.macos_settings.enable_disk_encryption configuration option to true.
Run the fleetctl apply -f workstations-canary-config.yml command.

Fleet auto-configures DeferForceAtUserLoginMaxBypassAttempts to 1, ensuring mandatory disk encryption during new Mac setup.

In order to complete the process of encrypting the hard drive and escrowing the key in Fleet, your end users must take action. If the host already had disk encryption turned on, the user will need to input their password. If the host did not already have disk encryption turned on, the user will need to log out or restart their computer.

Share these guided instructions with your end users.

Step 3: confirm disk encryption is enforced and Fleet is storing the disk encryption key

In the Fleet UI, head to the Controls > macOS settings > Disk encryption tab. You will see a table that shows the status of disk encryption on your hosts.

Verified: the host turned disk encryption on and sent their key to Fleet. Fleet verified with osquery. See instructions for viewing the disk encryption key here.
Verifying: the host acknowledged the MDM command to install the disk encryption profile. Fleet is verifying with osquery and retrieving the disk encryption key.

It may take up to one hour for Fleet to collect and store the disk encryption keys from all hosts.

Action required (pending): the end user must take action to turn disk encryption on or reset their disk encryption key.
Enforcing (pending): the host will receive the MDM command to install the configuration profile when the host comes online.
Removing enforcement (pending): the host will receive the MDM command to remove the disk encryption profile when the host comes online.
Failed: hosts that are failed to enforce disk encryption.

You can click each status to view the list of hosts for that status.

View disk encryption key

The disk encryption key allows you to reset a macOS host's password if you don't know it. This way, if you plan to prepare a host for a new employee, you can login to it and erase all its content and settings.

The key can be accessed by Fleet admin, maintainers, and observers. An event is tracked in the activity feed when a user views the key in Fleet.

How to view the disk encryption key:

Select a host on the Hosts page.
On the Host details page, select Actions > Show disk encryption key.

Whenever a disk encryption key is viewed, an activity will be logged. To view activity in the Fleet UI, click on the Fleet icon in the top navigation bar and make sure All teams is selected in the teams dropdown.

Reset a macOS host's password using the disk encryption key

How to reset a macOS host's password using the disk encryption key:

Restart the host. If you just unlocked a host that was locked remotely, the host will automatically restart.
On the Mac's login screen, enter the incorrect password three times. After the third failed login attempt, the Mac will display a prompt below the password field with the following message: "If you forgot your password, you can reset it using your Recovery Key." Select the right facing arrow at the end of this prompt.
Enter the disk encryption key. Note that Apple calls this "Recovery key." Learn how to find a host's disk encryption key here.
The Mac will display a prompt to reset the password. Reset the password and save this password somewhere safe. If you plan to prepare this Mac for a new employee, you'll need this password to erase all content and settings on the Mac.

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