Why Do Software Use Mac Address

  1. Find Device Using Mac Address
  1. Jun 07, 2011  Changed MAC address will stay until you revert to original MAC address. The changes are made only in software and wont affect any other thing. There is no issue with OS registration, however some software do use MAC address to identify the computer and thus may not work. There are very few software that do use it though.
  2. Anyone would be able to generate their own key if you do that. However, similar approaches that use a public key cryptosystem could be used to generate license keys. OP's license key generation service could sign a MAC address, and the license-restricted software can verify the license key using the public key of the key generation service.
  3. A MAC address is a number used to uniquely identify your device on the local network segment. The address is (and needs to be) visible to everyone on the network segment, but because of how network routing works, is not normally visible to anyone else. Unless you take steps to change it regularly, your MAC address uniquely identifies your device.
  4. Two, for malicious purposes you may need to spoof you MAC address so you could gain access to networks or to hide who you really are. Spoofing your MAC address is legal and can be done safely within Windows without any external software. If you use this to spoof you MAC address for Malicious purposes I cannot be held responsible.

A MAC (Media Access Control) address is the unique hardware address of a network device such as an Ethernet card or a Wireless card. At MIT, the MAC address is registered and used to 'certify' users that want to use DHCP or Wireless on their computers.

MAC spoofing is a technique for changing a factory-assigned Media Access Control (MAC) address of a network interface on a networked device. The MAC address that is hard-coded on a network interface controller (NIC) cannot be changed. However, many drivers allow the MAC address to be changed. Additionally, there are tools which can make an operating system believe that the NIC has the MAC address of a user's choosing. The process of masking a MAC address is known as MAC spoofing. Essentially, MAC spoofing entails changing a computer's identity, for any reason, and it is relatively easy.[1]

Motivation[edit]

The changing of the assigned MAC address may allow the bypassing of access control lists on servers or routers, either hiding a computer on a network or allowing it to impersonate another network device. MAC spoofing is done for legitimate and illicit purposes alike.

New hardware for existing Internet Service Providers (ISP)[edit]

Many ISPs register the client's MAC address for service and billing services.[2] Since MAC addresses are unique and hard-coded on network interface controller (NIC) cards,[1] when the client wants to connect a new gadget or change their existing gadget, the ISP will detect different MAC addresses and the ISP might not grant Internet access to those new devices. This can be circumvented easily by MAC spoofing. The client only needs to spoof the new device's MAC address to the MAC address that was registered by the ISP.[2] In this case, the client spoofs their MAC address to gain Internet access from multiple devices. While this seems like a legitimate case, MAC spoofing new gadgets can be considered illegal if the ISP's user-agreement prevents the user from connecting more than one device to their service. Moreover, the client is not the only person who can spoof their MAC address to gain access to the ISP. Hackers can gain unauthorized access to the ISP via the same technique. This allows hackers to gain access to unauthorized services, and the hacker will be hard to identify because the hacker uses the client's identity. This action is considered an illegitimate use of MAC spoofing and illegal as well. However, it is very hard to track hackers that are utilizing MAC spoofing.[3]

This also applies to customer-premises equipment, such as cable and DSL modems. In cases where the provider leases the equipment to the customer on a monthly basis, the CPE has a hard-coded MAC address which is on a list known to the provider's distribution networks, allowing service to be established as long as the customer is not in billing arrears. In cases where the provider allows customers to provide their own equipment (and thus avoid the monthly leasing fee on their bill,) the provider requires that the customer give them the MAC address of their equipment before service will be established.

Many email apps ignore speed for features, and sooner or later, they get replaced.Then, it should handle emails intelligently and efficiently.Most email apps these days induce that personalize your email feed. Does gmail have a mac app. Things that make an email app a good email appFirst, it should be able to perform any task quickly.

Fulfilling software requirements[edit]

Some software can only be installed and run on systems with pre-defined MAC addresses as stated in the software end-user license agreement, and users have to comply with this requirement in order to gain access to the software. If the user has to install different hardware due to malfunction of the original device or if there is a problem with the user's NIC card, then the software will not recognize the new hardware. However, this problem can be solved using MAC spoofing. The user just has to spoof the new MAC address as to mimic the MAC address that was registered by the software.[citation needed] This activity is very hard to define as either legitimate or illegitimate reason for MAC spoofing. Legal issues might arise if the user grants access to the software on multiple devices simultaneously. At the same time, the user can obtain access to software for which he or she has not secured a license. Contacting the software vendor might be the safest route to take if there is a hardware problem preventing access to the software. Software may also perform MAC filtering because the software does not want unauthorized users to gain access to certain networks to which the software grants access. In such cases MAC spoofing can be considered a serious illegal activity and can be legally punished.[4]

Identity masking[edit]

If a user chooses to spoof their MAC address in order to protect the user's privacy,[citation needed] this is called identity masking. One might wish to do this because, as an example, on a Wi-Fi network connection a MAC address is not encrypted. Even the secure IEEE 802.11i-2004 (WPA) encryption method does not prevent Wi-Fi networks from sending out MAC addresses.[citation needed] Hence, in order to avoid being tracked, the user might choose to spoof the device's MAC address. However, hackers use the same technique to maneuver around network permissions without revealing their identity. Some networks use MAC filtering in order to prevent unwanted access. Hackers can use MAC spoofing to get access to a particular network and do some damage. Hackers' MAC spoofing pushes the responsibility for any illegal activity onto authentic users. As a result, the real offender may go undetected by law enforcement.[citation needed]

MAC Address Randomization in WiFi[edit]

To prevent third parties from using the MAC address to track devices, Android, Linux, iOS, and Windows[5] have implemented MAC addressrandomization. In June 2014, Apple announced that future versions of their iOS platform would randomize MAC addresses for all WiFi connections. The Linux kernel has supported MAC address randomization during network scans since March 2015,[6] but drivers need to be updated to use this feature.[7] Windows has supported it since the release of Windows 10[5] in July 2015.

Controversy[edit]

Although MAC address spoofing is not illegal, its practice has caused controversy in some cases. In the 2012 indictment against Aaron Swartz Internet hacktivist, who was accused of illegally accessing files from JSTOR digital library, prosecutors claimed that because he had spoofed his MAC address it showed purposeful intent to commit criminal acts.[4] In June 2014, Apple announced that future versions of their iOS platform would randomize MAC addresses for all WiFi connections, making it more difficult for internet service providers to track user activities and identities, which resurrected moral and legal arguments surrounding the practice of MAC spoofing among several blogs and newspapers.[8]

Limitations[edit]

MAC address spoofing is limited to the local broadcast domain. Unlike IP address spoofing, where senders spoof their IP address in order to cause the receiver to send the response elsewhere, in MAC address spoofing the response is usually received by the spoofing party if switch is not configured to prevent MAC spoofing.

See also[edit]

  • ifconfig, linux utility capable of changing MAC address

References[edit]

  1. ^ abCardenas, Edgar D. 'MAC Spoofing--An Introduction'. GIAC Security Essentials Certification. SANS Institute. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  2. ^ ab'MAC Spoofing'. Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Research and Development Section in Collaboration with the NCECC’s Technology Unit. Archived from the original on 23 June 2012. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  3. ^Gupta, Deepak; Gaurav Tiwari (4 November 2009). 'MAC SPOOFING AND ITS COUNTERMEASURES'(PDF). International Journal of Recent Trends in Engineering. 2 (4): 21. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  4. ^ abIndictment against Aaron Swartz
  5. ^ abhttp://papers.mathyvanhoef.com/asiaccs2016.pdf
  6. ^https://w1.fi/cgit/hostap/plain/wpa_supplicant/ChangeLog
  7. ^https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=ad2b26abc157460ca6fac1a53a2bfeade283adfa
  8. ^Change MAC Address: Use Public WiFi Signals Without Any Limits, Not To Mention Serious Privacy Benefits
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MAC_spoofing&oldid=939148918'

I am going to expose an important topic on hacking knowledge that some of you might know and most of you don’t. When you’re going to hack a computer or server on the Internet, you won’t want your IP address to spill out. That’s because your ISP could easy trace you by two simple information which is the time and IP Address. So you’ll need to use proxy or even chains of proxies to avoid being directly traced by the victim’s firewall. If you think you’re safe hiding behind a proxy server, bad news is most proxy server has logging enabled and your IP address is definitely listed in the log file when you’re connected to it. It is possible that the administrator of the proxy server passes your information to your ISP and you’ll still get caught at the end of the day. Don’t forget, there are still some other important information that can be obtained from an IP Address if a person knows what tools to use. One of it is your network adapter’s MAC address.

Every network card contains a unique code called MAC address that is permanently assigned to it, similarly like every computer requires a unique IP address to be connected to a network. Although these information can be configured to have the same, it would cause conflict and connection problems. To view your network card’s MAC address, just run the command “ipconfig /all” in command prompt and refer to the value of Physical Address.

One thing you should know is the MAC address on your computer’s network card will not get passed out to the Internet so there is no way a website or an Internet server can capture this information. Only your Internet Service Provider (ISP) can detect the MAC address of your modem or router. So basically your ISP is capable of tracking your location by your IP address, time and the MAC address of your modem or router.

In another scenario, some people may still be using WEP encryption for their wireless network because some old devices don’t support WPA. WEP encryption is very weak and can be cracked in less than 5 minutes using BackTrack Linux. Most of the time they’d also enable a second line of defense which is the MAC address filtering to only allow authorized devices to connect to their wireless network but they’re wrong. A hacker can easily find out the authorized MAC address, change their network card’s MAC address to the authorized ones and poison the ARP cache to prevent the owner’s machine from connecting to it. Here’s an example of Belkin Play Max F7D4401 v1 router. It has a MAC Address Filtering feature where you can set up a list of allowed clients and use the wireless connection.

Other than that, some time limited shareware such as Hotspot Shield that uses your MAC address to keep track of the free usage. If the trial period has expired or is pending to reset every month, you can easily bypass this restriction by changing your MAC address. I bet by now you should know the power of spoofing your MAC Address. MAC address can actually be changed directly from Windows but the easiest way is to just a free program called Technitium MAC Address Changer.

To change your MAC address, run the program, click the Random MAC Address button followed by the Change Now! button. The update takes effect immediately without a reboot and stays intact even when you boot up the computer tomorrow. To restore back your original MAC address, click the Restore Original button on Technitium MAC Address Changer program.

Download Technitium MAC Address Changer

Why Do Software Use Mac Address

To manually change your MAC address in Windows 7 without using a third party software, go to Control Panel > System > Device Manager. Expand Network Adapters and double click on the network card that you want to change the MAC address. Go to Advanced tab and look for Network Address in the Property box. Click on it and you can specify your own value with any random 12 characters of letters and numbers.

You might also like:

5 Steps to Investigate and Report Abusive IP Address5 Ways to Protect Your Computer Against NetCut’s ARP Spoofing Attack4 Ways to Edit URLs at Internet Explorer Address Bar History7 SMTP Providers to Hide Sender IP Address in Email HeadersGet SMS Notification when Electricity Power Supply is Restored

Karthik4 years ago

The Technicium Mac address changer has certain restriction in some cases (particularly Wireless connection) such that we should use only ’02’ as fist octet of mac address (as you can see a checkbox in the tool). So, it seems it is not possible to completely spoof your mac address as another PC’s mac address. May be we can play with, by just hiding behind some random mac address.

AddressReply

spoofing the MAC randomly every few minutes may be more useful. Roland gx 24 for sale.

Reply
2cents14 years ago

If you’re behind a router, your ISP only sees the router’s MAC addy. That’s the one you should change.
Regardless, if you have a home broadband connection, you might have a hard time arguing with your ISP since they tie your IP to the modem id.

Reply

Find Device Using Mac Address

Leave a Reply