4 ms·

It's not just about inbound connections, people also generally don't want to have their outbound devices clearly visible by counting unique IPs, or MAC addresse

It's not just about inbound connections, people also generally don't want to have their outbound devices clearly visible by counting unique IPs, or MAC addresses (and thus manufacturer) of devices sent out with every packet when MAC is used to generate the address, or another globally unique identifier for ad networks to track.

tolien 5y ago
As sibling points out, that’s already covered by the IPv6 privacy extensions, which every major OS has some support for [1] 1: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc4941 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc4941
kstrauser 5y ago
I think all major OSes have privacy extensions enabled by default, and therefore use random addresses that change regularly.
- alar44 5y ago
  They 100% most certainly don't. I would have no idea what anything is on my network if every workstation's MAC addresses was constantly changing. Some OS's do randomize per SSID, but it doesn't constantly change, it would break DHCP by using up all the addresses. You can't just constantly change your L2 address.
  - kstrauser 5y ago
    This is in IPv6, not v4. I highlight that because you mention DHCP, which generally isn’t used there. And it’s not the MAC address that changes, but the 64-bit interface identifier. Ethernet would probably stop working if the MAC address changed with any regularity. You can read more about this at https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2014/12/ipv6-privacy-addresses-provide-protection-against-surveillance-and-tracking/ https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2014/12/ipv6-privacy-ad... From that article written in 2014, these OSes have privacy extensions enabled by default: - All versions of Windows after Windows XP - All versions of Mac OS X from 10.7 onward - All versions of iOS since iOS 4.3 - All versions of Android since 4.0 (ICS) - Some versions of Linux (and for others it can be easily configured)
X-Istence 5y ago
With IPv6 and SLAAC your external IPv6 address changes on a schedule using privacy extensions... Mine at home is configured to change every 30 minutes.
Notanothertoo 5y ago
This is why I haven't swapped, but I didn't realize they've accounted for this at the client level. Makes sense, still makes me think about IoT devices though and things I don't have 'control' over like my chrome cast.

tolien 5y ago

As sibling points out, that’s already covered by the IPv6 privacy extensions, which every major OS has some support for [1] 1: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc4941 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc4941

kstrauser 5y ago

I think all major OSes have privacy extensions enabled by default, and therefore use random addresses that change regularly.

alar44 5y ago
They 100% most certainly don't. I would have no idea what anything is on my network if every workstation's MAC addresses was constantly changing. Some OS's do randomize per SSID, but it doesn't constantly change, it would break DHCP by using up all the addresses. You can't just constantly change your L2 address.
- kstrauser 5y ago
  This is in IPv6, not v4. I highlight that because you mention DHCP, which generally isn’t used there. And it’s not the MAC address that changes, but the 64-bit interface identifier. Ethernet would probably stop working if the MAC address changed with any regularity. You can read more about this at https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2014/12/ipv6-privacy-addresses-provide-protection-against-surveillance-and-tracking/ https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2014/12/ipv6-privacy-ad... From that article written in 2014, these OSes have privacy extensions enabled by default: - All versions of Windows after Windows XP - All versions of Mac OS X from 10.7 onward - All versions of iOS since iOS 4.3 - All versions of Android since 4.0 (ICS) - Some versions of Linux (and for others it can be easily configured)

X-Istence 5y ago

With IPv6 and SLAAC your external IPv6 address changes on a schedule using privacy extensions... Mine at home is configured to change every 30 minutes.

Notanothertoo 5y ago

This is why I haven't swapped, but I didn't realize they've accounted for this at the client level. Makes sense, still makes me think about IoT devices though and things I don't have 'control' over like my chrome cast.