Comments on: Apple iOS 8 randomises WiFi MAC addresses https://blog.michaelfmcnamara.com/2014/06/apple-ios-8-randomises-wifi-mac-addresses/ technology, networking, virtualization and IP telephony Tue, 17 Jun 2014 23:03:28 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 By: Michael McNamara https://blog.michaelfmcnamara.com/2014/06/apple-ios-8-randomises-wifi-mac-addresses/comment-page-1/#comment-72110 Tue, 17 Jun 2014 23:03:28 +0000 http://blog.michaelfmcnamara.com/?p=4390#comment-72110 In reply to Greg Ferro.

Thanks for the comment Greg. Looking forward to seeing a few packet traces to see how the feature behaves.

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By: Michael McNamara https://blog.michaelfmcnamara.com/2014/06/apple-ios-8-randomises-wifi-mac-addresses/comment-page-1/#comment-72109 Tue, 17 Jun 2014 22:57:01 +0000 http://blog.michaelfmcnamara.com/?p=4390#comment-72109 In reply to A.

Thanks for the comment!

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By: Michael McNamara https://blog.michaelfmcnamara.com/2014/06/apple-ios-8-randomises-wifi-mac-addresses/comment-page-1/#comment-72108 Tue, 17 Jun 2014 22:55:30 +0000 http://blog.michaelfmcnamara.com/?p=4390#comment-72108 In reply to Frank Sweetser.

Thanks for the comment Frank!

I’d be interested in seeing a few packet traces myself.

Cheers!

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By: Greg Ferro https://blog.michaelfmcnamara.com/2014/06/apple-ios-8-randomises-wifi-mac-addresses/comment-page-1/#comment-71853 Sat, 14 Jun 2014 18:11:44 +0000 http://blog.michaelfmcnamara.com/?p=4390#comment-71853 The MAC address are randomised during the probe phase. This is where the WiFi base stations does auto-discovery as you move around and clients probe for base stations and networks.

Because you haven’t joined the network, you don’t have an IP. And because you haven’t joined th network you haven’t given permission to be monitoring and tracked as you move around public spaces. Offering randomised MAC prevents unknown tracking and forces WiFi trackers to ask for your permission. Most major wireless vendors have this today and offer customer analytics based on BlueTooth and WiFi MAC Addresses regardless of whether you gave permission or not.

Once you join a network, you get an IP and the MAC address is stable. By joining the network it would be assumed that you are giving permission to be tracked.

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By: A https://blog.michaelfmcnamara.com/2014/06/apple-ios-8-randomises-wifi-mac-addresses/comment-page-1/#comment-71844 Sat, 14 Jun 2014 16:59:13 +0000 http://blog.michaelfmcnamara.com/?p=4390#comment-71844 As far as I understood, the randomization is only used for probing. When you are actually connecting to the network – you will use a real MAC. However, there are now many Wi-Fi analytics systems that track user presence and location (and gather stats) even when user is not associated to any WLAN. This feature supposedly can protect user identity in such scenarios.

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By: Frank Sweetser https://blog.michaelfmcnamara.com/2014/06/apple-ios-8-randomises-wifi-mac-addresses/comment-page-1/#comment-71839 Sat, 14 Jun 2014 15:31:55 +0000 http://blog.michaelfmcnamara.com/?p=4390#comment-71839 A few people have looked at iOS 8 beta behavior, and so far no one can find it happening:

http://listserv.educause.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind1406&L=WIRELESS-LAN&T=0&F=&S=&P=7008

Anyone actually seen the randomization happening in the wild yet?

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