qubes-doc/privacy/randomizing-your-MAC-address.md

layout	title	permalink
doc	Randomizing your MAC Address	/doc/randomizing-your-mac-address/

Randomizing your MAC Address

Changing the default MAC Address of your hardware is crucial in protecting privacy. Currently, Qubes OS does not "randomize" or spoof the MAC Address, so until this is implemented by default you can randomize your MAC Address by the following.

Configuring Qubes

First thing you need to do is install macchanger package by opening your fedora-23 TemplateVM and typing

sudo dnf install macchanger

Then create the file macspoof@.service in fedora-23 located at /etc/systemd/system/ directory

vim /etc/systemd/system/macspoof@.service

Paste the following inside of that newly created file

[Unit]
Description=macchanger on %I
# Hack since macspoof@%i contains @ which is not allowed yet
ConditionPathExists=/var/run/qubes-service/macspoof-%i
Wants=network-pre.target
Before=network-pre.target
BindsTo=sys-subsystem-net-devices-%i.device
After=sys-subsystem-net-devices-%i.device

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/macchanger -r %I
Type=oneshot

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Make sure you get the right iface names

It is crucial to get the correct iface name for the devices (ethernet and wifi) that you want to randomize. To do that, open your sys-net (or where your device drivers are) and type in terminal the command ifconfig the printout will look similar to:

enp0s0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
	ether 9e:d6:53:02:4b:b6  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
        device interrupt 52  memory 0xe1200000-e1220000  

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536
        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
        inet6 ::1  prefixlen 128  scopeid 0x10<host>
        loop  txqueuelen 0  (Local Loopback)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

wlp0s1: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.2.121  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.2.255
        inet6 fe80::3602:86ff:fe1f:a7cf  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
	ether 06:6d:70:a8:7b:35  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 41  bytes 5138 (5.0 KiB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 32  bytes 3712 (3.6 KiB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

The iface name values you are interested in are enp0s0 and wlp0s1 as those represent your ethernet and wifi devices, respectively.

Also, in this blob of text is your actual MAC addresses which you will use to verify the randomizing is working correctly. In this example, those addresses are ether 9e:d6:53:02:4b:b6 and ether 06:6d:70:a8:7b:35 respectively.

Now, go back to your fedora-23 TemplateVM and use the touch command to create service files in the appropriate place, note that the iface name values at the end:

cd /var/run/qubes-service/
sudo touch macspoof-enp0s0
sudo touch macspoof-wlp0s1

Verify the correct files exist in the directory

[user@fedora-23 qubes-service]$ ls
cups             macspoof-wlp0s1  qubes-update-check
macspoof-enp0s0  meminfo-writer   updates-proxy-setup

Now, also within the TemplateVM, type the following commands for each hardware device that you want to randomize a MAC addresses for

sudo systemctl enable macspoof@wlp0s1
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/macspoof@wlp0s1.service to /etc/systemd/system/macspoof@.service.
sudo systemctl enable macspoof@enp0s0
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/macspoof@enp0s0.service to /etc/systemd/system/macspoof@.service.

Then open up Terminal for dom0 and enable the Qubes services for your sys-net VM by doing the following for each device

qubes-service -e sys-net macspoof-wlp0s1
qubes-service -e sys-net macspood-enp0s0

Now do the following and you should be ready to go

• Stop your fedora-23 VM
• Stop your sys-net VM and restart it

To verify this worked corectly, look at the Services pane of your VM Settings window, which should look like

Your MAC address should now randomize each time you restart your computer or restart the sys-net VM. To verify this for sure, go back to your sys-net or device VM and type ifconfig and look at the values that start with ether such as ether 9e:d6:53:02:4b:b6 which should now look different.

---

Usage Notes

This approach to MAC Randomizing has been tested and used by some users as well as some of the Qubes team. Observations that are to be expected are:

• This does not randomize your MAC Address on sleep and wake state (only on restarting the sys-net VM)
• The sys-net networking VM takes longer for device drivers to start up than usual
• Delayed startup causes connecting to wifi and makes sys-whonix first attempt connecting to Tor to fail
• You can configure macchanger to use the -e flag which randomizes address by same device vendor/manufacturer, instead of our example (which uses -r to make a totally random MAC address). Alter the following line:

ExecStart=/usr/bin/macchanger -e %I

Disabling / Uninstalling

To disable MAC Randomizing if you find that a network connecting to does not like changing MAC Addresses, you can disable temporarily or if you want to permanently remove this solution, do the following:

Disable Temporarily

• Go to the Services pane on your sys-net and uncheck all services starting with macspoof-

Uninstall Permanently

• Go to the Services pane on your sys-net and highlight the services starting with macspoof-
• Now click the - minus button to remove the service
• In your fedora-23 type sudo systemctl disable macspoof@wlp0s1
• Also in fedora-23 type sudo systemctl disable macspoof@enp0s0
• Remove the service file sudo rm /etc/systemd/system/macspoof@.service in TemplateVM
• Delete the package sudo dnf remove macchanger