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Reply to @n_dimension@infosec.exchange
Only 3 Easy Payments of $19.95@feld@friedcheese.us (2026-08-21 08:22:35)
@n_dimension Apple does one unique MAC address per SSID unless it's an insecure/open network, and then it rotates your MAC address once every 14 days. It doesn't constantly change like people assume because that would be a great way to kill a poorly configured DHCP server with too small of a pool and too long lease expiration.
Android requires developer mode setting to make it always change, otherwise it only changes once per 24 hours or when the lease expires on an open network with no captive portal. Even deleting the SSID and re-adding it doesn't roll you a new MAC; it keeps the MAC address you used for that SSID forever unless you factory reset your phone
There probably are some slight variations on this behavior depending on vendor, but you wouldn't want to constantly have your MAC change.
and neither of these features even existed in 2013 --
For Android it was 2017, for Apple it was 2014
:tipshat:
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G@stark@mastodon.mit.edu (2026-08-21 23:49:34)
@feld @n_dimension I think they point is not that it was happening automatically but simply that changing your mac address is not a crime.
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Only 3 Easy Payments of $19.95@feld@friedcheese.us (2026-08-22 01:28:06)
@stark @n_dimension of course it's not, but doing it to evade a ban for violating the terms of service in the process of a much larger crime of stealing data certainly is