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Password Protecting Your Data

By JC » Posted on January 4, 2007 - 1:01pm
thisclose asks:

Question

Is it possible to password protect a single folder in Mac OS 10.4.8?

Answer

Not directly, no. There are a number of ways to get around this, though. The first is through controlling access, the second is through encryption. I won’t go in depth here, as Adam already covered most of this in How to Hide Your Porn.

Controlling Access

If you have need to hide data from someone who has physical access to the computer, you’ve pretty much already lost the war, but there are some battles you can win and hope your opponent gives up. Give them their own user account without admin privs and set your home directory to have “No Access” for the Group and Other domains. This is done in the Get Info panel.

If you’re hiding data on a machine where you can’t do this, then you might have some social issues you need to work out with the opponent.

Encryption

Create an encrypted disk image, using Disk Utility. This creates a password-protected DMG file wherein you may store whatever sundry secrets you have.

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Author Biography

JC is a former Mac Genius and Mac-centric IT worker with a background in print advertising. He earned a reputation as a miracle worker when he saved the day at a new business pitch with the arcane knowledge that Apple’s ADB cables were nothing more than poorly shielded S-Video cables.

JC runs the Heroic Efforts Data Recovery Service and writes Ungenius, a tawdry tale of the life and times of a former Mac Genius.

You can contact JC via IM or via the contact form.

Password protecting folders ... sort of
unixgeek on January 5, 2007 - 7:28pm
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You can sort of password protect a folder. This should work for any version of MacOS X that can create an encrypted disk image.

First, create an encrypted disk image with Disk Utility. I recommend using a fixed image size rather than using a sparseimage. You do not want to store the password to the encrypted image in your Keychain, so make sure that the checkbox for adding the password to the Keychain is unchecked.

Second, create a folder inside the encrypted disk image once it is mounted.

Last, create an Alias (not a symbolic link, but a Finder alias from the File menu) to the new folder inside the disk image. Copy this alias to your desktop and then unmount the disk image.

Double clicking on the alias should prompt you for the password to the disk image, then mount the disk image, then open a Finder window for the aliased folder. Make sure that you unmount the disk image when you leave your computer unattended.

Regards,

unxgeek

—
“Smile,” they said, “it could be worse.”
So I did, and it was.

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