Android Tablets Forum banner

Problem with MAC Address Spoofing

42K views 3 replies 2 participants last post by  geofferyh 
#1 ·
I am experimenting with ways to temporarily change (spoof) the MAC address of my PiPo M8Pro3G tablet. Several apps for this are offered on Google Play, but they all seem to suffer the same basic problem.

Once the Mac address is changed, WIFI doesn't "Connect" because it never gets past the authentication process.

Firstly, ROOT and Busybox are required to accomplish a temporary MAC address change. And, I utilized the "Mac Address Changer" app, and others, from Google Play. Then, using a Terminal app I verifyed that wlan0 was in fact set to the new MAC address. There was no eth0 (mobile) interface. However, the p2p0 interface was still set to the original tablet MAC address.

Question #1: Just what is the p2p0 interface?

Question #2: Why /data/misc/wifi/wlan_mac file shows a different (not spoof MAC) MAC address than found at Settings->About->Status->WI-FI Mac address?

Question #3: Why might several different spoofing apps all cause WIFI to hang at "Authenticating..."?

Here is the manual methodology I have tried to accomplish spoofing using Terminal:

How to Temporarily Spoof MAC address

Things you will need and do before spoofing the Mac address:

- A Rooted tablet
- Install BusyBox
- Install a Terminal app
- Turn WIFI "ON", and "Forget" any network connections.

NOTE: wlan0 = WIFI Interface eth0 = Mobile Interface

1) Start Terminal
Type: su

2) Then, Disable network
Type: busybox ifconfig wlan0 down

3) View your current Mac address
Type: busybox iplink show wlan0

4) Change the MAC address of the interface
Type: busybox ifconfig wlan0 hw ether 00:C0:CA:99:99:99
(replace with mac address you want to spoof)

5) Enable network
Type: busybox ifconfig wlan0 up

6) Check the MAC address
Type: busybox ifconfig wlan0

This should temporarily spoof a Mac address and it will change back to the original on the next reboot.
 
See less See more
#2 · (Edited by Moderator)
#1 p2p0 is a peer to peer interface, meant to share data between devices without going though the router (but can and is used other ways)

#2 The wifi driver (wlan.ko, dhd.ko, 8192.ko, etc) reads the mac from the wifi chip or a file on the device, you'd have to open the .ko file with a hex editor on a PC to see where it's looking. Could also dmesg right after switching wifi on.

#3 Your DHCP server assigns a lease and address to the device, you have to release it before you can get a new lease and address on the same device with a different mac address. Or you have mac filtering enabled on your router, blocking the new mac.

Your tab may be using p2p0 instead of wlan0 as it's wifi interface, you can change it's mac the same way you did with wlan0
 
#4 ·
Thank you for your points of clarification. Helps a lot to get some additional input since I am deeper into Android than I have ever gone before.

I currently utilize a Netgear WN2000RPT Repeater to boost the wifi from my remote wireless router. This because of the typically limited capability of tablets to resolve weak signal strength. The repeater was set to utilize the same WPA2 security setting as the router. I reset the default security on the repeater back to "None" and the "Authentication" problem went away. While I have found the problem, I really do not know what technically causes the problem.

I even tried using a different WPA2 security code than the default pass-thru router security code; no connection success. Also, trying to connect to the WPA2 router directly still causes the authentication problem.

I had already found the information about MAC manufacturer Hex ID's. Once I was able to get "Connected", I tried using a totally different test MAC spoof address (0c:0c:0c:0c:0c:01). Success. However, trying to get connected thtu p2p0 was not successful.

Bottom line, it appears that Android MAC Spoofing can only be accomplished on "Open" access wifi networks. Also, it is interesting to note that I have not found this limitation using Windows based computers.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top