MacOS bug shows password instead of hint on apfs volume – update

Apple’s macOS High Sierra contains a bug that causes the operating system to reveal the password of an encrypted apfs volume. After unmounting and remounting the volume, the OS shows the password instead of the hint.

The bug was found by Matheus Mariano, who has since reported the problem to Apple. There is no fix for the problem yet. Apple released macOS 10.13 High Sierra on September 25 after a beta period of several months. The software replaces the hfs+ file system with the Apple File System, or apfs, on systems with SSDs.

Anyone who uses Disk Utility to add an apfs-based encrypted disk volume to the container must enter a password, along with a hint for that password. Anyone who then removes the disk volume and adds it again must enter the password. Anyone who wants to show his hint for this, however, will immediately see the password from the operating system. Even after a restart, the window continues to display the password when mounting the disk volume. The issue occurs with the beta release and the official release of High Sierra. It is unknown when Apple will fix the problem.

Update, 21.40: Apple has released an update to High Sierra and advises users to backup and create a new apfs volume and then create a new apfs encrypted volume to restore the data.