How to verify a Lion FileVault recovery key

filevaultSecurity

I have a volume that is encrypted with OS X Lion's full-disk FileVault. When I enabled FileVault I was given a recovery key, which I wrote down. I'd like to verify that the recovery key that I wrote down is correct before I store it somewhere safe.

How can I verify that a FileVault recovery key is correct?

Best Answer

This is much easier to do beginning in Mavericks. The fdesetup command was expanded to support recovery key changes and verification.

$ sudo fdesetup validaterecovery
Password:
Enter the current recovery key:
true

This will prompt you for the key, which should be entered in all caps with the hyphens.

true means you entered a valid recovery key.

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