Apple officially announced on Wednesday, April 6th that the FIPS 140-2 validations for the cryptographic modules used by iOS 9 and OS X 10.11.x have now been completed. This is significant news for folks who want to use FileVault 2 in government and regulated industries (such as financial and health-care institutions.)
For folks who haven’t heard of it before, FIPS 140-2 is an information technology security accreditation program run jointly by the US and Canadian governments. This program is used by private sector vendors to have their cryptographic modules certified for use in US and Canadian government departments and private industries with regulatory requirements for security.
As part of the announcement, Apple has released KBase articles and guidance for security offices who deal with encryption:
Apple FIPS Cryptographic Modules v6.0 for OS X El Capitan v10.11 – https://support.apple.com/HT205748
Crypto Officer Role Guide for FIPS 140-2 Compliance OS X El Capitan v10.11 – https://support.apple.com/library/APPLE/APPLECARE_ALLGEOS/HT205748/APPLEFIPS_GUIDE_CO_OSX10.11.pdf
According to Apple, the OS X El Capitan Cryptographic Modules, Apple OS X CoreCrypto Module v6.0 and Apple OS X CoreCrypto Kernel Module v6.0, require no setup or configuration to be in “FIPS Mode” for FIPS 140-2 compliance on devices running OS X El Capitan 10.11.x.
FileVault 2 is listed as being FIPS 140-2 Compliant as part of the Crypto Officer Role Guide for FIPS 140-2 Compliance OS X El Capitan v10.11 documentation, in the Compliant Applications and Services section.
For more information about the validation certification, please see below the jump.
iOS 9
Module Name: Apple iOS CoreCrypto Module, v6.0
Certificate #2594: http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/1401val2016.htm#2594
Security Policy: http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/140sp/140sp2594.pdf
Module Name: Apple iOS CoreCrypto Kernel Module, v6.0
Certificate #2609: http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/1401val2016.htm#2609
Security Policy: http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/140sp/140sp2609.pdf
OS X El Capitan v10.11
Module Name: Apple OS X CoreCrypto Module, v6.0
Certificate #2610: http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/1401val2016.htm#2610
Security Policy: http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/140sp/140sp2610.pdf
Module Name: Apple OS X CoreCrypto Kernel Module, v6.0
Certificate #2597: http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/1401val2016.htm#2597
Security Policy: http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cmvp/documents/140-1/140sp/140sp2597.pdf
