I leaked my IPv6 address and MAC address, should I be worried

Kristeen

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I have a computer that stopped accessing the internet and I haven't been able to figure out the issue, so I went on another forum to ask for help. I was urged to post the results from command ip a && ip r because I was told that's the most basic network diagnostic. So I posted it. Then I realized it contained my MAC address, my private IPv6 address and my public IPv6 address. And anything else that I haven't realized. Did I mess up? Do I need to be worried? What can someone do with that information? And if I should be worried, what should I do?

After I realized what information I posted, I got nervous and deleted the question. Then I factory reset my router. I then put all my devices in my home network on a VPN. (I was already using a VPN on my computers, but not any other devices) I can spoof a MAC address on that computer no problem. Is there anything else I should do? It looks like factory resetting my router changed some of the numbers on my public IPv6 address but it did not change the private. Is there a way I can change that? Should I?

Also, I am curious, possible stupid question. If all the devices on my network are using a VPN, is my internet still discoverable and hackable? I'm thinking someone close by could pick up my wireless signal, but if they are far away, can they access it if all the devices are using a VPN?

Any help or advice anyone can give me, I would greatly appreciate it! Thank you in advance.
 
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G'day Kristeen, welcome to Linux.org

Which was the other forum?

How long ago was this?

Can you find any trace of your question, either on that forum or online.....Just type the title of your post into a search engine...if it is out there on the web that search will find it.

Which vpn ?
 
I will mention three members names here, who will almost certainly have better knowledge than myself.

Nothing for you to do here

@osprey
@JasKinasis
@GatorsFan
 
Hi Kristeen....no need to quote my post.
 
G'day Kristeen, welcome to Linux.org

Which was the other forum?

How long ago was this?

Can you find any trace of your question, either on that forum or online.....Just type the title of your post into a search engine...if it is out there on the web that search will find it.

Which vpn ?
This was a couple days ago. If I do a search on the title of my post, it comes up in search results. But when I click on it, there's nothing there. The question is gone.

I'm using Nord. Should I be worried?
 
Nord should be good....no problems there.

If that question will not take you to the other forums site etc....then you are good to go.

The other members whose names I mentioned above will likely take a look at this thread and comment as they see necessary.

I would hazard a guess that the other forum realized that they had asked you for that info......and then realised they had asked for info that was capable of identifying you......which is a NO/NO in forums. Search engines like Google etc etc will gobble up info like that given the opportunity.

I would relax if I were you.

Just read what the other members have to say here, when they reply
 
Clicking on the title in a search does actually bring up the forum, but the post is not there. I deleted it yesterday. I can still see it in my account, but it says hidden.

I have a funny feeling they knew what they were doing. A couple people were asking me to post that info. I don't know, I will wait to see what the others say. Thanks so much. I'm trying to relax, lol.
 
I would contact an admin there and ask for that info to be purged. Completely.

It should not have been asked for.
 
@Kristeen
Exposing MAC address means exposing unique hardware ID.
From MAC address it's possible to determine hardware manufacturer.

You shouldn't be worried about someone spying on you because whoever is on same network as you already knows your MAC and sees all your web traffic which you visit.
And those who aren't, for them your MAC address is meaningless unless they're on same network as you, but this is very unlikely.

Your link local IPv6 is bound to your interface and cannot be routed, it's very much useless on the internet unless your PC is already compromised.

Your public IP shouldn't have been exposed by you and nobody should have asked you to provide it, if you're running services on your PC (but very likely you don't) then you're exposing yourself to IP scanning and attacks on those services.

There is no need for VPN, all you had to do is turn off the router and wait several minutes before turning on again to get a new IP.
 
Can I be identified though by the IP that I changed? Can they find out who I am and where I live? Thanks so much.
 
So the only thing I had to worry about was the public IP then? And I can change it anyway, so I should be fine? I factory reset my router, so I guess I should be good then. Can I identified though by the IP that I changed?
If you still have access to your posted public IP you can check if it was changed or if it's the same.

To see your current public IP visit https://whatismyipaddress.com/

Can they find out who I am and where I live?
With public IP alone anyone can find out your approximate geographical location, but not exact location.

They won't find out who you are because for this you'd need to be hacked and store personal info on your PC, but since you're not running any services locally and didn't download anything nobody hacked you based on public IP alone.
 
Your public IP shouldn't have been exposed by you and nobody should have asked you to provide it, if you're running services on your PC (but very likely you don't) then you're exposing yourself to IP scanning and attacks on those services.
From my small understanding and little experience I have with ipv6 is that your home router gets assigned a range of ipv6 addresses, so a sub-net. Out of that range the ipv6 address your devices receives it can be be a different address out of that range because of privacy, in my experience that can be different each time your device reboots or reconnects.
 
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To see your current public IP visit https://whatismyipaddress.com/
It was my IPv6 address that was exposed. The IP on whatismyipaddress looks different. I did do another command ip a && ip r to see the IP again after I reset the router. It's partially changed. The beginning is the same, the second half of it is changed.
 
The second half being changed is good. That is all that has to happen
 
From my small understanding and little experience I have with ipv6 is that your home router gets assigned a range of ipv6 addresses, so a sub-net.
From my knowledge I've read about before a gateway gets first 64bits assigned (first half), the other half is left to the router, gateway or administrator for subneting.

The beginning is the same, the second half of it is changed.
Yes, the size of first "half" of the IP depends on your ISP and is fixed from what I know.
It's usually 64 bits (one half) but doesn't have to be.
 
From my knowledge I've read about before a gateway gets first 64bits assigned (first half), the other half is left to the router, gateway or administrator for subneting.
I had a short training on ipv6 a little less than a year ago but since I never use it and only used it at home for a bit but because ran into issues that only annoyed me and didn't have the patience to sort out so I disabled it again.
 
@f33dm3bits
I've read your article and the privacy portion is new to me, however it still differentiates link-local vs public IPv6 addresses.
link-local address is prefixed with fe80::/10 while public IPv6 is prefixed by ISP usually ::/64
those link-local addresses are not routable.

What the article refers to is public IP privacy, but also mentions some arguments about someone mentioning link-local unique addresses bound to MAC, so I didn't fully grasp it but it's worth reading further.
 
link-local address is prefixed with fe80::/10
Link local is similar to the current ipv4 private addresses which your devices use to communicate locally.
 

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