Pinephone's Wifi gets a new MAC address every time it boots
-
Every time I powercycle my pinephone, on reboot it has a different MAC address on Wifi. It usually differs on last 3 bytes only.
This strange behaviour is noticeable since a few days. Can this really be wanted? What would it be good for? Did anyone notice the same?
-
It is a recent issue, and you can read what we know about it here:
https://gitlab.com/ubports/community-ports/pinephone/-/issues/225
-
@ThePossessor
I don't know if it's wanted, but I know some people here asked for this kind of feature for privacy purpose.But I think the feature request was for free wifi only, so something more advanced and complex than what you're experiencing.
-
@Giiba Thanks for the info. Good to know it is already in the focus.
-
@AppLee this can indeed be useful for extra paranoid use cases. I guess it should however not be enabled by default. Network security is not always happy about new unknown MAC addresses in the private Wifi.
-
@ThePossessor
Yes I agree that it is an extra super paranoid scenario.
But maybe fixing this issue will help implement this feature so it could be a nice addon to Ubuntu Touch's security measures.I prefer having a fixed MAC address because I use it to identify my phone in the network. And of course it can be spoofed, but it's way more comfortable this way.
You'll always have to balance convenience and security.
