Problem

Due to recent security threats faced by companies, such as malware, there have been questions about Data Encryption support in SOLIDWORKS PDM. The following information describes the current support for SOLIDWORKS and PDM Data Encryption with some information pulled from the SOLIDWORKS Knowledge Base QA Articles.

Local Disk Encryption

Currently, SOLIDWORKS does not test or validate specific disk encryption technologies. However, in most cases, when the disk encryption is happening at the hardware or OS layer, there is likely no interference with SOLIDWORKS or PDM. Please consult with your IT to conduct testing with your specific encryption application. The following information describes what aspects of client and server data encryption are supported for PDM.

Encrypted File Systems (EFS)

According to the SOLIDWORKS QA article QA00000105257, SOLIDWORKS PDM does not support the use of Microsoft Encrypting File System (EFS). This is because the SOLIDWORKS PDM Explorer shell extension is not EFS-aware, so it will not work, and none of the files or subfolders with the vault view root folder will use EFS.

SOLIDWORKS PDM Data Traffic Encryption

The following information is taken from the SOLIDWORKS QA article QA00000106108, which goes over encryption in a SOLIDWORKS PDM environment. The QA article states the following:

• SOLIDWORKS PDM always sends encrypted User credentials (password) between the client and the archive server.
• SOLIDWORKS PDM 2026 and later uses the AES-256 encryption algorithm to encrypt all file traffic to and from the archive server.  
• SOLIDWORKS PDM 2025 uses the AES-128 encryption algorithm to encrypt all file traffic to and from the archive server.  
• SOLIDWORKS PDM 2023 and 2024 use the MD5 hash algorithm to encrypt all file traffic to and from the archive server.  
• Earlier versions of SOLIDWORKS PDM send file traffic over unencrypted TCP sockets to and from the archive server. In a WAN environment, the recommendation is to use VPN tunnels to secure the traffic.
• SQL data traffic is by default unencrypted and can be encrypted using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS). Refer to Microsoft SQL Server documentation, chapter Configure SQL Server Database Engine for encrypting connections ( Encrypt Connections by Importing a Certificate - SQL Server | Microsoft Learn)
• Web traffic is by default unencrypted, but you can encrypt it using SSL (HTTPS).

SOLIDWORKS PDM SQL Database Communication

The following information is taken from the SOLIDWORKS QA article QA00000106295, which goes over encrypting SQL Database Communication. To encrypt data that is transmitted between the SQL Server and the client machine, the Microsoft SQL Server either uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS). The SQL Server must first be configured to use a certificate, and more information on that can be found in the SQL documentation: Encrypt Connections by Importing a Certificate - SQL Server | Microsoft Learn

For additional support, existing customers can submit a ticket or new customers can contact Hawk Ridge Systems.