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Introduction Reasons for MAC randomization
Media Access Control (MAC) is a burned-in MAC randomization efforts can be traced back to a
48-bit unique identifier for each of your couple of years. Companies had started
personal, daily-use computer & mobile experimenting with tiny steps to improve privacy
devices. It’s represented by 12 hexadecimal around WiFi deployments. MAC IDs have been used
digits. In layman’s terms, it’s a permanent for multiple purposes since the advent of networking
name associated with your mobile, tablet or came about.
laptop’s network hardware or chip. An However, MAC IDs were constantly exposed to
example of how a MAC address looks like: radio frequency environments which compromise
00:1B:44:11:3A:B9. privacy and lead to heavy data collection and
Although MAC randomization has been analytics. To protect device identity and integrity
around for a long time, it was used only during over WiFi networks, MAC randomization was taken
probing. The association of the station (your as the primary solution.
device) with the Access Point or Router and
their associated Service Set Identifier (SSID), Identifying randomized MAC
always exposed the original MAC address of
your device. addresses
However, in 2020, that changed, for the better If the second character of the MAC address consists
or for worse, is a matter of perspective. Apple, of 2, 6, A or E, then the address is said to be
Android OS and other OS vendors started randomized. Identifying which MAC addresses
using a default, Private (randomized) WiFi within your network are random can help you
address. understand the extent of the utilization of this
It is a random MAC address different from your technology.
“real” MAC address at association, and for
every SSID. This process is called MAC
randomization. The random MAC address
overrides the burned-in MAC address. x2 - xx - xx - xx - xx - xx
What does this mean? This means that your
network stack never identifies a device x6 - xx - xx - xx - xx - xx
uniquely as “X” or “Y” since the original MAC
ID is hidden to all SSIDs and changes with
each one. xA - xx - xx - xx - xx - xx
MAC IDs have been used for multiple
networking operations, from authentication
xE - xx - xx - xx - xx - xx
and provisioning to granular management and
control. This development has caused a (Source: Wikipedia)
massive disruption in the wireless and
networking industry.
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OS Vendor approach to randomization
MAC RANDOMIZED MAC OFFERS THE CAN BE DISABLED
RANDOMIZATION PERSISTENT PER ABILITY TO AS DEFAULT FOR
ENABLED AS SSID CYCLICALLY ALL SSIDs
DEFAULT RANDOMIZE MAC
PER SSID
APPLE (iOS14) YES YES NO NO, BUT CAN BE
TOGGLED OFF PER
SPECIFIC SSID
ANDROID (OS 10) YES YES NO NO, BUT CAN BE
TOGGLED OFF PER
SPECIFIC SSID
WINDOWS (OS 10) YES DEPENDS ON YES YES (Only through
RANDOMIZATION PowerShell)
SETTINGS
Implications of MAC randomization
from an end-user perspective
Looking from an end user perspective, this This would become a cumbersome task for
development essentially makes your device hard to users who work as freelancers or regular
track & uniquely identify over networks. An added travellers who visit hotels and cafes frequently.
level of obfuscation over your details increases the If onboarding of users becomes a lengthy, every
level of privacy and security on your devices. While day process, users might burn out and stop
you would not directly experience any benefits as using Guest WiFi. Businesses spend time,
such, your device would be protected against money and effort on trying to provide seamless
identification in RF rich environments. Most people WiFi services to their customers.
using WiFi services for general purposes would MAC randomization further creates problems
probably not even notice that their MAC address is with MAC Access Lists. For example, parental
being randomized. However, if you are a regular control functions work on the basis of
visitor to a business which offers WiFi, the network blacklisting MAC addresses on the network. If a
you have previously associated with, will not MAC address randomizes on a timer-basis, the
recognize your device the next time you visit. You network would not recognize the device as
would have to repeat the process of registration and blacklisted. The device would be able to gain
authentication every time you wish to connect to the access to the network irrespective of the
WiFi. Access Control List (ACL) rules set by the
administrator.
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Event Timeline
Effects on Enterprise Mobility and Solving the problem of MAC
Mobile Device Management randomization
A BYOD proliferation and an addition of Currently, there are no concrete solutions which
personal devices in workplaces has always been exist to help us solve the problem of MAC
a tough security problem to deal with. However, randomization. Efforts are underway to resolve
networking and wireless technology companies the issue and uniquely identify devices through
have come up with solutions which solve these other methods. One easy way out is to simply
problems. Enterprise Mobility Management and tell your users to disable the private WiFi
Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions address feature through the settings.
rely extensively on the uniqueness of the MAC Another way to resolve the problem is through
for network control, operation and modifying network profiles on MDMs and
management. configuring them to disable private WiFi address
MAC randomization presents several through host agents.
challenges to enterprise networks, such as:
• Tracking devices over multiple SSIDs
• Authentication of users
• Achieving granular network control
• Incorrect location analytics
• IP conflicts
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Problems with MAC randomization Putting the future in perspective
Currently, the documentation provided by OS As the number of devices grow, as we continue
vendors who offer MAC randomization is to digitize markets, economies and all things
relatively low. In its initial stages, Apple’s iOS across all aspects of life, security concerns will
operating system in its beta testing versions was keep on growing. And companies who
shown to aggressively randomize the MAC. manufacture products will keep tightening their
However, in its stable release, the private WiFi security parameters to ensure utmost security
address for a specific SSID does not randomize across all levels is maintained.
even post forgetting the network. Networking and wireless technology companies
While Android 11’s developer versions had need to continuously evaluate and revisit their
introduced a timer-based randomization n approaches to make sure that they are in line
option, the stable release of the OS provides per with what the world is going to come about to, in
Passpoint profile randomization. terms of security and added levels of
Another reason why companies are not abstraction.
aggressively working on MAC randomization A few years down the line, we may not have the
might be; In case a MAC address is randomized option to disable MAC randomization, those in
while a connection is live, the connection will be this sphere must strive to build products that are
lost and the user would have to reconnect to the ahead of the curve in terms of their adaptability.
Access Point again. In such a test case,
recurring randomization would mean repetitive
attempts at forming a connection.
Research also suggests that MAC addresses
are not the only unique identifier available to sniff
device and gather data through them.
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