Spoof your MAC address in OS X.

Joshua Schnell | Tue, Jan 29, 2008

Sometimes we want to do things that require us to change the MAC address associated with our networking device. Say, get on a network that’s filtered by MAC addresses, or, add an extra level of anonymity when you’re on an open wireless network.

It’s pretty simple. Open up the terminal. Type:
ifconfig en1: for your wireless device, or
ifconfig en0: for your wired device.

This will give you your default MAC address. Make sure to copy it down, and save it somewhere so you can chance it back when you want to.

Now to change the MAC address on your wireless card type:
sudo ifconfig en1 ether aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff

Enter your password and you’re done. Now, a side note here is that the aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff has to be between 0-9, and a-f. So, for instance, a1:b2:c3:d4:e5:f6 would work. m4:1z:3d:l5:az:K6 would not!

Now if I could only change my wireless modes I’d be set!

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7 Responses to “Spoof your MAC address in OS X.”

James O'Boston Says:
February 28th, 2008 at 10:34 pm

Not so fast, cowboy.

Apple giveth, and now hath taken away.

Under 10.4 on a Powerbook G4, I could change the MAC on the ethernet card, but not the airport.

Under 10.5 up through the latest patch on a MacBook, i could change the MAC on the airport but not the ethernet card.

As of the latest patch (firmware update for the keyboard, and other things not listed in detail) I can’t change any MAC addresses at all.

Thanks, Apple. I paid for this computer. It should do what *I* want it to do, not what you dictate.

dan Says:
November 11th, 2008 at 2:12 am

you should be able to change your soc. security card numbers too, huh? im surprised this was possible in the first place, love it.

chilln Says:
November 29th, 2008 at 6:49 pm

I wish it was that easy. I cant do it on any option I have tried. sudo -s way, ifconfig en1 and en0….nothing. Turn airport off and on (through terminal and gui) The lladdr way….nope. Is it the kernel? hardware? or is it driver issue? Im running 10.5.5 Build 9f33.
Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook
Model Identifier: MacBook3,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.2 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MB31.008E.B01
Any help you may find along the way would be helpfull, I'll do the same if I find it I'll post it here.
I also have ubuntu 8.10 on parallels 4.0, I have tried to change it through there but its not doing it. Any feed back would be nice. Thank you