macchanger

manipulates the MAC address of network interfaces

TLDR

Show current and permanent MAC addresses

$ macchanger -s [eth0]

Set random MAC address

$ sudo macchanger -r [eth0]

Set random MAC with burned-in address flag

$ sudo macchanger -r -b [eth0]

Set a specific MAC address

$ sudo macchanger -m [XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX] [eth0]

Set a random MAC from the same vendor

$ sudo macchanger -a [eth0]

Reset to permanent hardware MAC

$ sudo macchanger -p [eth0]

List known vendor MAC prefixes

$ macchanger -l

macchanger manipulates the MAC address of network interfaces. It can set random addresses, vendor-specific addresses, or restore the original hardware address. Useful for privacy, testing, and network troubleshooting.

PARAMETERS

-s, --show

Show current and permanent MAC addresses

-r, --random

Set a completely random MAC address

-b, --bia

Pretend to be a burned-in address (vendor bit)

-m, --mac address

Set a specific MAC address

-p, --permanent

Reset to the permanent hardware MAC

-l, --list

Print known vendor MAC prefixes

-e, --ending

Only change the last bytes, preserving the vendor prefix

-a, --another

Set random vendor MAC of same kind

-A

Set random vendor MAC of any kind

INSTALL

sudo apt install macchanger

sudo dnf install macchanger

sudo pacman -S macchanger

sudo apk add macchanger

sudo zypper install macchanger

brew install macchanger

nix profile install nixpkgs#macchanger

CAVEATS

The interface must be down before changing MAC on most systems. Changes are not persistent across reboots. Some networks detect and block MAC address changes.

HISTORY

macchanger was written by Alvaro Lopez Ortega and is commonly used for privacy and network testing on Linux systems.