Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to seal list management in decrypting encrypted data and provide a method, system and computer program product for extensible seal management for encrypted data. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for extensible seal management for encrypted data can include identifying multiple different seal hints of different seal hint formats for different seals in a seal list associated with encrypted data and selecting from amongst the multiple different seal hints, seal hints of a recognizable seal hint format. The method also can include filtering the seals in the seal list according to the selected seal hints and attempting decryption of the filtered seals with a decryption key specified by the selected seal hints to decrypt one of the filtered seals in order to reveal a bulk key. Finally, the method can include decrypting the encrypted data with the bulk key.