Change your Network card MAC ( Media Access Control) address

Media Access Control address, a hardware address that uniquely identifies each node of a network. In IEEE 802 networks, the Data Link Control (DLC) layer of the OSI Reference Model is divided into two sublayers: the Logical Link Control (LLC) layer and the Media Access Control (MAC) layer. The MAC layer interfaces directly with the network medium.Consequently, each different type of network medium requires a different MAC layer. On networks that do not conform to the IEEE 802 standards but do conform to the OSI Reference Model, the node address is called the Data Link Control (DLC) address.

If you want to change your network card mac address you need to use simple utility called mac changer.MAC changer is a utility for manipulating the MAC address of network interfaces

Possible usages

You’re in a DHCP network with some kind of IP-based restriction

You’ve a cluster that boot with BOOTP and you want to have a clean set of MACs

Debug MAC based routes

MAC Changer Features

Set specific MAC address of a network interface

Set the MAC randomly

Set a MAC of another vendor

Set another MAC of the same vendor

Set a MAC of the same kind (eg: wireless card)

Display a vendor MAC list (today, 6800 items) to choose from

Install MAC Changer in Debian

#apt-get install macchanger

This will complete the installation.

If you Find your MAC address using the following command

ifconfig

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0C:29:A8:D0:FA
inet addr:172.20.22.35 Bcast:172.20.22.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::20c:29ff:fea8:d0fa/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:7690 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:6399 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:4284579 (4.0 MiB) TX bytes:876317 (855.7 KiB)
Interrupt:177 Base address:0×1080

In the above example MAC Address is 00:0C:29:A8:D0:FA

If you want to configure MAC Changer you need to stop the networking services using the following command

#/etc/init.d/networking stop

Now you need to configure your MAC address using the following examples

MAC Changer Syntax

macchanger [options] device

Examples

# macchanger eth1

Current MAC: 00:09:a5:eb:23:f7 (Hansung Eletronic Industries Development Co., Ltd)
Faked MAC: 00:09:a5:eb:23:f8 (Hansung Eletronic Industries Development Co., Ltd)

# macchanger –endding eth1

Current MAC: 00:09:a5:eb:23:f8 (Hansung Eletronic Industries Development Co., Ltd)
Faked MAC: 00:09:a5:6f:31:23 (Hansung Eletronic Industries Development Co., Ltd)

# macchanger –another eth1

Current MAC: 00:09:a5:6f:31:23 (Hansung Eletronic Industries Development Co., Ltd)
Faked MAC: 00:11:18:5b:3a:1f (Blx Ic Design Corp., Ltd.)

# macchanger -A eth1

Current MAC: 00:06:5b:f6:f3:48 (Dell Computer Corp.)
Faked MAC: 00:0d:11:93:0c:4f (Dentsply - Gendex)

# macchanger -r eth1

Current MAC: 00:0d:11:93:0c:4f (Dentsply - Gendex)
Faked MAC: 3c:f1:89:f9:1f:ce (unknown)

# macchanger –mac=01:23:45:67:89:AB eth1

Current MAC: 00:40:96:43:87:65 [wireless] (Cisco/Aironet 4800/340)
Faked MAC: 01:23:45:67:89:ab (unknown)

# ./macchanger –list=Cray

Misc MACs:
Num MAC Vendor
— — ——
065 - 00:00:7d - Cray Research Superservers,Inc
068 - 00:00:80 - Cray Communications (formerly Dowty Network Services)
317 - 00:40:a6 - Cray Research Inc.

Here is the list of available options for MAC Changer

-h, -help

Show summary of options.

-V, -version

Show version of program.

-e, -endding

Don’t change the vendor bytes.

-a, -another

Set random vendor MAC of the same kind.

-A Set random vendor MAC of any kind.

-r, -random

Set fully random MAC.

-l, -list[=keyword]

Print known vendors (with keyword in the vendor’s description string)

-m, –mac XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

Set the MAC XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

If you completed the your MAC address changes you need to start the networking service using the following command

#/etc/init.d/networking start