Shorthand MAC addresses

Question

If I have a MAC represented as:

0:b:23:26:32:52

is that the same as:

00:0b:23:26:32:52

or:

00:bb:23:26:32:52

?

Answer 1

You would add the leading zeros, not repeat single characters (so 00:0b:23:26:32:52, yes).

Chances are that the application in question just didn't format its output correctly with the leading zeros.

irb(main):003:0> sprintf '%X', 11
=> "B"
irb(main):004:0> sprintf '%02X', 11
=> "0B"

If you wanted to (somewhat) verify this, you could use a MAC lookup tool to check the manufacturer of the device.

According to MAC_Find, the 00:0b:23 prefix belongs to "Siemens Subscriber Network", while the other one is unknown. That's not 100% proof of anything, but if you know the device is a Siemens device, that would be enough verification for most cases.