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Comment by DyslexicAtheist | Hacker News Reader

or generate an address that is reserved for computers sold to the NSA (:

  #
  # 00-20-91 (hex)    J125, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY 
  # 002091 (base 16) J125, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY
  #
  $> NSA_MAC=$(echo "00:20:91:"`openssl rand -hex 3 \
    | sed 's/\(..\)/\1:/g; s/.$//'`)
  $> sudo ifconfig eth0 hw ether $NSA_MAC

But actually do people still bother with mac-spoofing in 2020? It's from a security/nw-admin pov next to useless (whitelist/filtering nor does it boost privacy of end-users). IMHO it gives people false sense of security and as a "practice" seems like a relic from the 90ies.

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Bluetooth and wifi mac spoofing is pretty common, both when scanning and connecting. Both iOS and android do it to certain degrees.

It does indeed boost privacy as wireless networks in public places have been trying to track phones this way for a while now.

I don't know how it is now, but I remember a lot of generic/no-name Androids using the Mediatek platform would have random MAC addresses (which change every time you re-enable WiFi) because the manufacturer didn't bother writing a fixed one, so the firmware automatically generates a random one to use.

My Pixel 4 uses a different mac every time it connects to a wifi network by default. You can disable it per-network.

My university won't give me an IP, so I can't plug my laptop in. Solution was to fire up an old windows machine and grab the MAC off that.

I did politely ask for an IP before doing that, but they said it was a security risk.

Plenty of captive portals use mac-addresses to identify if users have used the captive portal (or have paid the fee of entry if it’s a paid service).

Though I’m not sure I ever bothered to lookup someone’s MAC address.

Plenty useful back when Panera limited you to 30 minutes of wifi; no idea if they still do.

Their wifi solution tracked you by MAC -- I think it was Sonicwalls? -- so when you hit the 30-min limit you'd spoof the MAC, re-connect, then back to business as usual.

I'd usually comply when the place was bumping -- hard to work when it's loud and crazy -- but most of the time it was empty in the mornings and the 30-min-limit was pointless.

This is not about privacy but access restriction (wifi in public hotspot limited to e.g. 30mins). And there it is still a very inexpensive solution i guess.

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