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What can someone do with a MAC address?
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Could someone who knows the WLAN MAC address of a mobile phone do anything malicious to the device at all? Or any other type of computer/device for that matter?
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#2
Nothing really...MAC address only identifies a network communications device. Some ISPs only allow certain MAC addresses to access their service, and routers can be configured to only allow certain MAC address to connect through it. If you know the MAC address of someone's device it is possible to 'spoof' it and steal someone's internet connection. The only way you can connect to a computer remotely is using an IP or Internet Protocol address, and even then there are many security features in place to prevent you from doing such.
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#3
(Original post by NewFolder)
Could someone who knows the WLAN MAC address of a mobile phone do anything malicious to the device at all? Or any other type of computer/device for that matter?
Could someone who knows the WLAN MAC address of a mobile phone do anything malicious to the device at all? Or any other type of computer/device for that matter?
In other words if you joined a wifi network then someone looking for your phone with access to that network could then identify your phone. Worst case scenario is that someone could change their mac address to yours and cleverly intercept your traffic by spoofing.
A criminal could also commit a crime with hardware pretending to be your phone. There are no real implications of this however as I don't think MAC addresses hold up in court as identification evidence.
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#4
(Original post by FranticMind)
It is effectively like having the registration of your car. It uniquely identifies hardware on a network, you can change it but there really is no need.
It is effectively like having the registration of your car. It uniquely identifies hardware on a network, you can change it but there really is no need.
It's also useful if you've managed to get access to someone else's network, where MAC address filtering has been enabled and you know a MAC address on that network. So you spoof your MAC address for those reasons
I've also known people to change MAC addresses on fake dreamboxes, because having more than one device in the house caused communication errors
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#5
As others have said there's not a lot that can be done with a MAC address. It's only visible on the local network, so if you've got a router at home your provider won't see the MAC address on your PC.
About the only thing that could be done maliciously with a mac address might be to continue using your internet connection on a wifi network that uses web based authentication, but if you're on such a network there's likely to be plenty of other worse attacks they could be doing.
About the only thing that could be done maliciously with a mac address might be to continue using your internet connection on a wifi network that uses web based authentication, but if you're on such a network there's likely to be plenty of other worse attacks they could be doing.
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Thank you for all your replies.
Would the attacker have to be connected to the same network in order to do this? If so, would it matter whether the network was an open network or encrypted?
(Original post by FranticMind)
In other words if you joined a wifi network then someone looking for your phone with access to that network could then identify your phone. Worst case scenario is that someone could change their mac address to yours and cleverly intercept your traffic by spoofing.
In other words if you joined a wifi network then someone looking for your phone with access to that network could then identify your phone. Worst case scenario is that someone could change their mac address to yours and cleverly intercept your traffic by spoofing.
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#7
(Original post by NewFolder)
Would the attacker have to be connected to the same network in order to do this?
Would the attacker have to be connected to the same network in order to do this?
Look up Address Resolution Protocol (ARP).
If so, would it matter whether the network was an open network or encrypted?
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#8
(Original post by NewFolder)
Thank you for all your replies.
Would the attacker have to be connected to the same network in order to do this? If so, would it matter whether the network was an open network or encrypted?
Thank you for all your replies.
Would the attacker have to be connected to the same network in order to do this? If so, would it matter whether the network was an open network or encrypted?
Encryption works on the data of the packet and so the content would be encrypted but the header would be intact. Meaning it would not matter if you had access to the information anyway.
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#10
(Original post by Eric mitchell)
How about wifi Mac address
How about wifi Mac address
This thread is from 2012. In future please check the dates before posting!
Thread closed.
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