up vote 4 down vote favorite
2
share [g+] share [fb]

I would like my MAC addresses on my Mac OS X (iMac) and iOS devices (iPhone, iPad) to be randomized on boot. I have no idea how to generate the random MAC, nor to insert it into the boot process. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

link|improve this question
3  
What are you attempting to achieve by this? Knowing your objectives would help in finding a workable solution. – Michael Kohne Sep 16 '10 at 11:25
feedback

4 Answers

up vote 3 down vote

You can't. The Ethernet and AirPort (Wi-Fi) drivers in Mac OS X don't reliably support changing your MAC address. I suspect the same is true of iOS, although I haven't tried it on a jailbroken iOS device.

Was this about privacy, or something else?

link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote 2 down vote 
sudo /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport -z
sudo ifconfig en1 ether 00:11:22:33:44:55
link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote 1 down vote

Besides questioning why, and thinking that this will be more work than will probably benefit you, realize that a truly random MAC will cause problems.

The main problem I see is grabbing by accident the same MAC as someone on the network you're on, or will later join. Also, part of the MAC is a hardware manufacturer identifier, so a truly 'random' MAC would possibly cause problems.

link|improve this answer
1  
Given the number of possible MAC addresses (281 trillion) causing a collision seems fairly improbable. – Dracs Feb 26 at 5:29
feedback
up vote -3 down vote

Um, the mac address is the physical address of your network device. It is set by the manufacturer and cannot be changed. At least not with software. With some h/w hackery, you probably could.

link|improve this answer
2  
Not true. Although you're correct that the MAC address was originally intended to be permanent, most modern network cards are more than capable of having their MAC address changed with software. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_spoofing for some simple examples of how. – Scott Sep 16 '10 at 9:46
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.