How to change the MAC address of an Ethernet interface
Change the MAC address of an Ethernet interface temporarily
Check MAC addresses:
$ ifconfig -a | awk '/HWaddr/ {print "Interface: " $1 "\t MAC: " $NF}'
Interface: eth0 MAC: 08:00:27:2c:a4:69
Interface: eth1 MAC: 08:00:27:9a:21:24
Shut down desired Ethernet interface (eth0 in this example):
$ sudo ifconfig eth0 down
Specify new MAC address:
$ sudo ifconfig eth0 hw ether 08:00:00:00:00:01
Activate modified Ethernet interface:
# ifconfig eth0 up
Verify changed MAC address:
$ ifconfig -a | awk '/HWaddr/ {print "Interface: " $1 "\t MAC: " $NF}'
Interface: eth0 MAC: 08:00:00:00:00:01
Interface: eth1 MAC: 08:00:27:9a:21:24
This change is not permanent as the MAC address on the interface eth0 will revert to the default on next system reboot.
Change the MAC address of an Ethernet interface permanently
To permanently change MAC address of an Ethernet interface you need to edit /etc/network/interfaces configuration file and use hwaddress directive:
# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system # and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5). # The loopback network interface auto lo iface lo inet loopback # Network interfaces allow-hotplug eth0 iface eth0 inet dhcp hwaddress ether 08:00:00:00:00:01 allow-hotplug eth1 iface eth1 inet dhcp
Reboot or reconfigure network interfaces by hand:
$ sudo service networking restart
MAC Changer
MAC Changer is a utility for viewing/manipulating the MAC address of network interfaces.
Install it using command:
$ sudo apt-get install macchanger
Set random vendor MAC address of the same kind:
$ sudo macchanger -a eth0 Permanent MAC: 84:8f:69:b0:fa:0a (unknown) Current MAC: 84:8f:69:b0:fa:0a (unknown) New MAC: 00:0e:37:5b:d7:31 (Harms & Wende Gmbh & Co.kg)
Set random vendor MAC address of any kind:
$ sudo macchanger -A eth0 Permanent MAC: 84:8f:69:b0:fa:0a (unknown) Current MAC: 00:0e:37:5b:d7:31 (Harms & Wende Gmbh & Co.kg) New MAC: 00:24:18:22:02:4b (Nextwave Semiconductor)
Set specific MAC address:
$ sudo macchanger -m 02:02:02:00:00:01 eth0 Permanent MAC: 84:8f:69:b0:fa:0a (unknown) Current MAC: 00:24:18:22:02:4b (Nextwave Semiconductor) New MAC: 02:02:02:00:00:01 (unknown)
Set fully random MAC:
$ sudo macchanger -r eth0 Permanent MAC: 84:8f:69:b0:fa:0a (unknown) Current MAC: 02:02:02:00:00:01 (unknown) New MAC: f6:61:c0:6a:14:66 (unknown)
Set another MAC address of the same vendor:
$ sudo macchanger -e eth0 Permanent MAC: 84:8f:69:b0:fa:0a (unknown) Current MAC: f6:61:c0:6a:14:66 (unknown) New MAC: f6:61:c0:53:a0:5f (unknown
Revert to the default MAC address:
$ sudo macchanger -p eth0 Permanent MAC: 84:8f:69:b0:fa:0a (unknown) Current MAC: f6:61:c0:53:a0:5f (unknown) New MAC: 84:8f:69:b0:fa:0a (unknown)
Display a vendor MAC address list to choose from
$ macchanger -l Misc MACs: Num MAC Vendor --- --- ------ 0000 - 00:00:00 - Xerox Corporation 0001 - 00:00:01 - Xerox Corporation 0002 - 00:00:02 - Xerox Corporation 0003 - 00:00:03 - Xerox Corporation 0004 - 00:00:04 - Xerox Corporation 0005 - 00:00:05 - Xerox Corporation 0006 - 00:00:06 - Xerox Corporation 0007 - 00:00:07 - Xerox Corporation 0008 - 00:00:08 - Xerox Corporation 0009 - 00:00:09 - Xerox Corporation 0010 - 00:00:0a - Omron Tateisi Electronics Co. 0011 - 00:00:0b - Matrix Corporation 0012 - 00:00:0c - Cisco Systems, Inc. 0013 - 00:00:0d - Fibronics Ltd. 0014 - 00:00:0e - Fujitsu Limited 0015 - 00:00:0f - Next, Inc. 0016 - 00:00:10 - Sytek Inc. [...]
Common problems
$ ifconfig eth0 hw ether 02:00:01:00:00:02 SIOCSIFHWADDR: Operation not permitted
You need root permissions to alter network interface.
$ sudo ifconfig eth0 hw ether 02:00:00:10:10:10 SIOCSIFHWADDR: Device or resource busy - you may need to down the interface
Shut down the network interface first.
$ sudo ifconfig eth0 hw ether 01:00:00:10:10:10 SIOCSIFHWADDR: Cannot assign requested address
This is not an unicast address as the first octet needs to be even. Look at the image below to understand it better. This image is from Wikipedia – MAC address page and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license.
