MAC spoofing is a technique for changing a factory-assigned Media Access Control (MAC) address of a network interface on a networked device. The MAC address that is hard-coded on a network interface controller (NIC) cannot be changed. However, many drivers allow the MAC address to be changed. Additionally, there are tools which can make an operating system believe that the NIC has the MAC address of a user's choosing. The process of masking a MAC address is known as MAC spoofing. Essentially, MAC spoofing entails changing a computer's identity, for any reason, and it is relatively easy.[1]
Motivation[edit]
The changing of the assigned MAC address may allow the bypassing of access control lists on servers or routers, either hiding a computer on a network or allowing it to impersonate another network device. MAC spoofing is done for legitimate and illicit purposes alike.
May 25, 2016 If someone gets spam that appears to come from you, most likely it is not because your computer or email account have been compromised, but simply that your email address is being spoofed. The Win7 MAC Address Changer runs differently on Windows Vista and Windows 8, as the name would suggest. The Freeware software offers a similar range of functions as the Technitium MAC Address Changer. The MAC spoofing follows four steps: Selection of the network card, selection of the operating system, selection of the desired MAC address,.
New hardware for existing Internet Service Providers (ISP)[edit]
Many ISPs register the client's MAC address for service and billing services.[2] Since MAC addresses are unique and hard-coded on network interface controller (NIC) cards,[1] when the client wants to connect a new gadget or change their existing gadget, the ISP will detect different MAC addresses and the ISP might not grant Internet access to those new devices. This can be circumvented easily by MAC spoofing. The client only needs to spoof the new device's MAC address to the MAC address that was registered by the ISP.[2] In this case, the client spoofs their MAC address to gain Internet access from multiple devices. While this seems like a legitimate case, MAC spoofing new gadgets can be considered illegal if the ISP's user-agreement prevents the user from connecting more than one device to their service. Moreover, the client is not the only person who can spoof their MAC address to gain access to the ISP. Hackers can gain unauthorized access to the ISP via the same technique. This allows hackers to gain access to unauthorized services, and the hacker will be hard to identify because the hacker uses the client's identity. This action is considered an illegitimate use of MAC spoofing and illegal as well. However, it is very hard to track hackers that are utilizing MAC spoofing.[3]
This also applies to customer-premises equipment, such as cable and DSL modems. In cases where the provider leases the equipment to the customer on a monthly basis, the CPE has a hard-coded MAC address which is on a list known to the provider's distribution networks, allowing service to be established as long as the customer is not in billing arrears. In cases where the provider allows customers to provide their own equipment (and thus avoid the monthly leasing fee on their bill,) the provider requires that the customer give them the MAC address of their equipment before service will be established.
Fulfilling software requirements[edit]
Some software can only be installed and run on systems with pre-defined MAC addresses as stated in the software end-user license agreement, and users have to comply with this requirement in order to gain access to the software. If the user has to install different hardware due to malfunction of the original device or if there is a problem with the user's NIC card, then the software will not recognize the new hardware. However, this problem can be solved using MAC spoofing. The user just has to spoof the new MAC address as to mimic the MAC address that was registered by the software.[citation needed] This activity is very hard to define as either legitimate or illegitimate reason for MAC spoofing. Legal issues might arise if the user grants access to the software on multiple devices simultaneously. At the same time, the user can obtain access to software for which he or she has not secured a license. Contacting the software vendor might be the safest route to take if there is a hardware problem preventing access to the software. Software may also perform MAC filtering because the software does not want unauthorized users to gain access to certain networks to which the software grants access. In such cases MAC spoofing can be considered a serious illegal activity and can be legally punished.[4]
Identity masking[edit]
If a user chooses to spoof their MAC address in order to protect the user's privacy,[citation needed] this is called identity masking. One might wish to do this because, as an example, on a Wi-Fi network connection a MAC address is not encrypted. Even the secure IEEE 802.11i-2004 (WPA) encryption method does not prevent Wi-Fi networks from sending out MAC addresses.[citation needed] Hence, in order to avoid being tracked, the user might choose to spoof the device's MAC address. However, hackers use the same technique to maneuver around network permissions without revealing their identity. Some networks use MAC filtering in order to prevent unwanted access. Hackers can use MAC spoofing to get access to a particular network and do some damage. Hackers' MAC spoofing pushes the responsibility for any illegal activity onto authentic users. As a result, the real offender may go undetected by law enforcement.[citation needed]
MAC Address Randomization in WiFi[edit]
To prevent third parties from using the MAC address to track devices, Android, Linux, iOS, and Windows[5] have implemented MAC addressrandomization. In June 2014, Apple announced that future versions of their iOS platform would randomize MAC addresses for all WiFi connections. The Linux kernel has supported MAC address randomization during network scans since March 2015,[6] but drivers need to be updated to use this feature.[7] Windows has supported it since the release of Windows 10[5] in July 2015.
Controversy[edit]
Although MAC address spoofing is not illegal, its practice has caused controversy in some cases. In the 2012 indictment against Aaron Swartz Internet hacktivist, who was accused of illegally accessing files from JSTOR digital library, prosecutors claimed that because he had spoofed his MAC address it showed purposeful intent to commit criminal acts.[4] In June 2014, Apple announced that future versions of their iOS platform would randomize MAC addresses for all WiFi connections, making it more difficult for internet service providers to track user activities and identities, which resurrected moral and legal arguments surrounding the practice of MAC spoofing among several blogs and newspapers.[8]
Limitations[edit]
MAC address spoofing is limited to the local broadcast domain. Unlike IP address spoofing, where senders spoof their IP address in order to cause the receiver to send the response elsewhere, in MAC address spoofing the response is usually received by the spoofing party if switch is not configured to prevent MAC spoofing.
![]() See also[edit]
Hacker Spoofed Mac Address GeneratorReferences[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MAC_spoofing&oldid=939148918'
example scenario of IP address spoofing
In computer networking, IP address spoofing or IP spoofing is the creation of Internet Protocol (IP) packets with a false source IP address, for the purpose of impersonating another computing system.[1]
Background[edit]
The basic protocol for sending data over the Internet network and many other computer networks is the Internet Protocol (IP). The protocol specifies that each IP packet must have a header which contains (among other things) the IP address of the sender of the packet. The source IP address is normally the address that the packet was sent from, but the sender's address in the header can be altered, so that to the recipient it appears that the packet came from another source.
The protocol requires the receiving computer to send back a response to the source IP address, so that spoofing is mainly used when the sender can anticipate the network response or does not care about the response.
The source IP address provides only limited information about the sender. It may provide general information on the region, city and town when on the packet was sent. It does not provide information on the identity of the sender or the computer being used.
Applications[edit]
IP address spoofing involving the use of a trusted IP address can be used by network intruders to overcome network security measures, such as authentication based on IP addresses. This type of attack is most effective where trust relationships exist between machines. For example, it is common on some corporate networks to have internal systems trust each other, so that users can log in without a username or password provided they are connecting from another machine on the internal network (and so must already be logged in). By spoofing a connection from a trusted machine, an attacker on the same network may be able to access the target machine without authentication.
IP address spoofing is most frequently used in denial-of-service attacks, where the objective is to flood the target with an overwhelming volume of traffic, and the attacker does not care about receiving responses to the attack packets. Packets with spoofed IP addresses are more difficult to filter since each spoofed packet appears to come from a different address, and they hide the true source of the attack. Denial of service attacks that use spoofing typically randomly choose addresses from the entire IP address space, though more sophisticated spoofing mechanisms might avoid unroutable addresses or unused portions of the IP address space. The proliferation of large botnets makes spoofing less important in denial of service attacks, but attackers typically have spoofing available as a tool, if they want to use it, so defenses against denial-of-service attacks that rely on the validity of the source IP address in attack packets might have trouble with spoofed packets. Backscatter, a technique used to observe denial-of-service attack activity in the Internet, relies on attackers' use of IP spoofing for its effectiveness.[citation needed]
Legitimate uses[edit]
The use of packets with a false source IP address is not always evidence of malicious intent. For example, in performance testing of websites, hundreds or even thousands of 'vusers' (virtual users) may be created, each executing a test script against the website under test, in order to simulate what will happen when the system goes 'live' and a large number of users log in on at once.
Since each user will normally have its own IP address, commercial testing products (such as HP LoadRunner, WebLOAD, and others) can use IP spoofing, allowing each user its own 'return address' as well.
Email Address SpoofedServices vulnerable to IP spoofing[edit]Why Spoof A Mac Address
Configuration and services that are vulnerable to IP spoofing:
Hacker Spoofed Mac Address Free
Defense against spoofing attacks[edit]
Packet filtering is one defense against IP spoofing attacks. The gateway to a network usually performs ingress filtering, which is blocking of packets from outside the network with a source address inside the network. This prevents an outside attacker spoofing the address of an internal machine. Ideally the gateway would also perform egress filtering on outgoing packets, which is blocking of packets from inside the network with a source address that is not inside. This prevents an attacker within the network performing filtering from launching IP spoofing attacks against external machines. Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is a common use of packet filtering, which has been used to secure the environments for sharing data over network and host based IDS approaches. [2]
It is also recommended to design network protocols and services so that they do not rely on the source IP address for authentication.
Upper layers[edit]
Some upper layer protocols provide their own defense against IP spoofing attacks. For example, Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) uses sequence numbers negotiated with the remote machine to ensure that arriving packets are part of an established connection. Since the attacker normally cannot see any reply packets, the sequence number must be guessed in order to hijack the connection. The poor implementation in many older operating systems and network devices, however, means that TCP sequence numbers can be predicted.
Other definitions[edit]
The term spoofing is also sometimes used to refer to header forgery, the insertion of false or misleading information in e-mail or netnews headers. Falsified headers are used to mislead the recipient, or network applications, as to the origin of a message. This is a common technique of spammers and sporgers, who wish to conceal the origin of their messages to avoid being tracked.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
External links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=IP_address_spoofing&oldid=964889489'
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