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    Pinephone's Wifi gets a new MAC address every time it boots

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    • ThePossessor
      ThePossessor last edited by

      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?

      AppLee 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • G
        Giiba last edited by

        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 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • AppLee
          AppLee @ThePossessor last edited by

          @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.

          ThePossessor 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • ThePossessor
            ThePossessor @Giiba last edited by

            @Giiba Thanks for the info. Good to know it is already in the focus.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • ThePossessor
              ThePossessor @AppLee last edited by

              @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.

              AppLee 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • AppLee
                AppLee @ThePossessor last edited by

                @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.

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