Ubuntu
network-manager package

NetworkManager resets spoofed mac address to physical mac

Bug #1573856 reported by Paul Khomyakov on 2016-04-23

268

This bug affects 3 people

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	network-manager (Ubuntu)	Triaged	Wishlist	Unassigned

Bug Description

Ubuntu 16.04 bumped NetworkManager to version 1.1.93. Unlike 15.10 (with v1.0.4) and earlier NetworkManager now resets temporary mac of an interface to actual physical mac effectively disabling typical wifi anonymization technics.

Same issue is present in just released NetworkManager 1.2.

It appears that sometime between 1.0.10 and 1.1.93 there was a change in src/devices/wifi/nm-device-wifi.c from

/* Set spoof MAC to the interface */
cloned_mac = nm_setting_wireless_get_cloned_mac_address (s_wireless);
if (cloned_mac)
nm_device_set_hw_addr (device, cloned_mac, "set", LOGD_WIFI);
to

/* Set spoof MAC to the interface */
cloned_mac = nm_setting_wireless_get_cloned_mac_address (s_wireless);
nm_device_set_hw_addr (device, cloned_mac, "set", LOGD_WIFI);

cloned_mac is NULL if not specified in NetworkManager GUI. When called with NULL nm_device_set_hw_addr sets the mac to physical mac of the interface.

See original description

Paul Khomyakov (usuntw) on 2016-04-23

Changed in compiz-plugins-main (Ubuntu):
status:	New → Invalid
no longer affects:	compiz-plugins-main (Ubuntu)

Paul Khomyakov (usuntw) on 2016-04-23

description:

updated

Seth Arnold (seth-arnold) on 2016-04-23

information type:

Private Security → Public Security

Revision history for this message

Aron Xu (happyaron) wrote on 2016-12-28:

This would be great to report upstream as a feature request.

Changed in network-manager (Ubuntu):
importance:	Undecided → Wishlist
status:	New → Triaged

Revision history for this message

Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote on 2017-01-02:

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue you are reporting is an upstream one and it would be nice if somebody having it could send the bug to the developers of the software by following the instructions at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/GNOME. If you have done so, please tell us the number of the upstream bug (or the link), so we can add a bugwatch that will inform us about its status. Thanks in advance.