privsec.dev/content/posts/macos/Properly Generate a Randomize MAC Address on macOS.md

title	date	tags	author
Properly Generate a Randomized MAC Address on macOS	2023-08-16	macOS Privacy	Tommy

Unlike iOS, macOS does not have an easy way to randomize the MAC address. To work around this, various guides recommended several ways to create a randomized MAC address and apply it to the system during runtime. Unfortunately, most of the instructions do not have a proper threat model in mind and will end up making you stick out more from the crowd.

The Threat Model

Consider the following:

• macOS does not support MAC address randomization by default
• Most if not all macOS computers around you will use their real MAC address with Apple's OUI (the first 3 octets of your MAC address)
• You cannot hide that you are using a mac (because of your hostname, connections to Apple's servers, etc)

Randomizing the mac address only makes sense if you use a not-very-unique hostname (like Macbook-Pro),