Data encryption with Core Data in iOS

Question

I just need a confirmation on this.

Is it correct to say that, with the iPhone 3GS and above, any data written to the filesystem is encrypted using hardware encrypti

Answer 1

No, your assumption is not correct.

From the NSPersistentStoreCoordinator class documentation:

The default value is NSFileProtectionCompleteUntilFirstUserAuthentication for all applications built on or after iOS v5.0. The default value for all older applications is NSFileProtectionNone.

To enable NSFileProtectionComplete, one would need to add the NSPersistentStoreFileProtectionKey with NSFileProtectionComplete to the options NSDictionary when calling the addPersistentStoreWithType:configuration:URL:options:error: method.

Keep in mind that this file encryption is only enabled when the user has set a passcode.