MAC Address, How to change it, and Different Network Interfaces explained.

MAC  stands for Media Access Control. It is also called hardware address, Burned-in address, or physical address. It is 48-bit or 6 bytes in size. It is a Permanent, 12-character-long Hexadecimal unique address assigned by the manufacturer. It is unchangeable and printed on a Network Interface card. A colon usually separates it (:).

MAC identifies devices and transfers data between them within the same network. Each packet sent on the network will have the source MAC address and destination MAC address. It works at the data link layer of the OSI model. It is used for delivering the data frames to the correct destination on the local area network or LAN.

MAC address can be used by access points to allow or filter devices in the network.

 ether à 00:11:22:33:44:55  à It is the MAC address of this interface.

 Parts of a MAC address:

MAC address consists of two parts:

1.       Block ID

2.       Device ID

Block ID:

 Block ID contains the first six characters which are assigned by manufacturer of your Computer Network Interface card. These are also called OUI (Organizationally Unique Identifier). These are assigned by IEEE Registration Authority committee.

Device ID: 

The device ID contains the remaining six characters; these characters are based on the manufacturer's date and device model.

Types of MAC address

There are 3 types of MAC address

1.       Unicast

2.       Broadcast

3.       Multicast

Can I change my MAC address?

MAC address can be changed and spoofed temporarily for anonymity purposes. But it cannot be changed permanently.

 How to change the MAC address in Kali Linux?

To change the MAC address in Kali Linux first, we have to understand interfaces.

What is a Network Interface?

Any device that allows us to connect to the network. e.g Wifi card, ethernet card, etc

How to view network interface.

To view the network interface type the following command in Linux

ifconfig        

to list all the network interfaces available on your Linux Machine.

Different types of Network Interfaces:

Following are different type of interfaces that are available when you are using linux  in virtual environment.

·         eth0

·         lo

·         Wlan0

eth0

It is a virtual interface that represents the wired connected devices means Ethernet.

lo 

It is called a loopback Interface and a default interface that is created by Linux. The Loopback interface is used for troubleshooting purposes or if you are hosting anything on your local server (on your PC), to access your local resources then this interface is used.

Wlan0:

It is a wireless adapter or Wifi interface. This interface is used to connect to wifi.  If you are connected to wifi then your Linux IP will be assigned below this interface.

Steps to change MAC address in Kali Linux?

To change the MAC address of a particular interface, first, you have to disable that interface.

For Example:

If I want to change the MAC address for my Wifi interface then I will first do.

Command to down the wlan0 network interface

ifconfig wlan0 down        

Command to change the hardware Address (MAC address) of Wlan0 network Interface

ifconfig wlan0 hw ether 00:11:22:33:44:55        

Then we have to enable ( up ) the interface that we have downed recently.

Command to up (enable)  the interface

ifconfig wlan0 up        

Now type ifconfig  you will the that your device interface MAC address will be changed.

How can you change it for the eth0 interface?

Steps:

Checking my existing MAC address  by typing ifconfig

Disabling the eth0 interface:

Ifconfig eth0 down        

You will see Your network interface will be down

Customizing MAC address  to 00:11:22:33:44:55

ifconfig eth0 hw ether 00:11:22:33:44:55        

Now up the interface again

Now check the MAC address through ifconfig whether we it is changed successfully.

Other Ways to Change MAC address:

Steps:

Following are the steps to change the MAC address through Mac Changer

There are two ways to change the MAC address through the MAC changer:

1. Assigning a Random MAC

2. Assigning a custom MAC

1. Assigning a Random MAC

Changing MAC address through MAC Changer Tool:

Checking the current MAC address

Checking  the help of the macchanger tool:

macchanger --help        

 Assigning Random MAC through Macchanger tool:

macchanger –a eth0        

A New Random MAC was assigned. Let’s check it  again through ifconfig

2. Assigning a custom MAC

Steps:

Following are the steps to assign a custom MAC.

For Example:

I want to assign the 00:11:22:33:44:55 MAC address then I will write the command as

macchanger –m eth0 00:11:22:33:44:55        

Note:

It will be reverted back to the original MAC address when you restart your computer.

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