This was already enabled by default in 1.2.0, but as said, users likely didn’t have the required support from wpa_supplicant. Randomization during Wi-Fi scanningĭuring Wi-Fi scanning, NetworkManager resets the MAC address frequently to a randomly generated address.

They support flexible mechanisms to generate a random address, most of these options are now also supported by NetworkManager. Tools like macchanger and macchiato are commonly used to change the MAC address of a device.

Also, the same options are now available not only for Wi-Fi, but also Ethernet devices. This allows also for more flexibility to generate “stable” addresses and the “generate-mac-address-mask”. With NetworkManager 1.4.0, changing of the MAC address is done by NetworkManager itself, requiring no support from the supplicant. Such a release does not yet exist to this date and thus virtually nobody is using this feature. The problem is that it requires API which will only be part of the next major release 2.6 of the supplicant. The Tails distribution and Wikipedia have good reads on the subject.ġ.2.0 relies on support from wpa_supplicant to configure a random MAC address. Only be aware that for real™ privacy, more considerations come into play. Suffice to say, some consider randomizing the MAC address an important feature to protect their privacy.

He also explains why you may want to do that in the first place, so I skip the introduction. Previously NetworkManager 1.2.0 added MAC address randomization for Wi-Fi, as Lubomir explains in his blog post. Václav sleeps better with NetworkManager’s MAC address randomization This is also called MAC address “spoofing” or “cloning”. 0 adds new features to change the current MAC address of your Ethernet or Wi-Fi card.

Network mac address spoofing