Private Wi-Fi Address

[jrmwvu04]

Just a heads up for everyone..

iOS 14, at least in beta, has a feature they call Private Wi-Fi Address that is enabled by default. This means that each time the device connects to your network, it will do so with a unique MAC address. The effect of which is that it will break static addresses and/or things like QoS rules that are instituted by MAC address. It can be disabled, but you must manually do so for each network.

 

[coxhaus]

Sounds interesting.

 

[Ronald Schwerer]

Is this setting for each known SSID? I mean, can you set it off for your home LAN SSIDs but go "incognito" when connected on public wifi?

 

[coxhaus]

It seems to have 1 on off switch in the picture.

 

[PeterR]

Some Android variations have been doing this for a while as default. It can be disabled.

 

[JDB]

Is this setting for each known SSID? I mean, can you set it off for your home LAN SSIDs but go "incognito" when connected on public wifi?

OP cleared states it can be disabled per network.
The screenshot is of the settings for a known SSID.


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[maghuro]

Same on latest Android, and on by default, which I think it is good in matters if security, but a pia in terms of easy-to-use

 

[jrmwvu04]

Is this setting for each known SSID? I mean, can you set it off for your home LAN SSIDs but go "incognito" when connected on public wifi?

OP cleared states it can be disabled per network.
The screenshot is of the settings for a known SSID.

This is correct. It is on by default and cannot be disabled globally as far as I can tell. It must be disabled manually per SSID.

 

[Ronald Schwerer]

Just checked my Samsung Note 10 (latest Android) and see it was set to randomize. I have separate 2.4 and 5 GHz SSIDs and oddly, turning it Off on the 5GHz SSID seemed to turn it Off on the 2.4 also. Note: it seems that you need to be currently connected to the SSID in order to see this setting.

So that explains why my DHCP wasn't assigining the static IP. I need to fix this also on my wife's phone.

 

[Ein]

Interesting mine if off by default

 

[dave14305]

And a crushing defeat for Wireless MAC Filter?

 

[jrmwvu04]

Interesting mine if off by defaultView attachment 24736

Yours says it is disabled because “it may not be supported” - I wonder what constitutes “support” for that feature.

 

[RMerlin]

which I think it is good in matters if security

How does having a random MAC improve security? And how does the process ensures there are no duplicates, since the address allocation won't be controlled by the IEEE?

 

[JDB]

How does having a random MAC improve security? And how does the process ensures there are no duplicates, since the address allocation won't be controlled by the IEEE?

I think they are confusing security with privacy.

Re duplicates, there are 2 to the 46 unique "locally-administered" MAC addresses (there is a bit in the MAC which says if it’s a globally assigned address with a registered OUI or a locally assigned random one). This gives 70,368,744,177,664 possibilities, so I think they are working on the basis that in the same Layer 2 segment the chances are very slim, plus all modern OS’s handle MAC duplicate by reassigning a new locally administered one if detected in this case (or telling the user if they assigned a manual one).


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[RMerlin]

I think they are confusing security with privacy.

Exactly.