Rachmani3652
Active Member
Can it affect your anonymity?
What vulnerabilities do you expose yourself to if you don't use macchanger in kali?
- Thread starter Rachmani3652
- Start date
There are vulnerabilities in all software, if you don't use a macchanger that's not going to effect how those vulnuarbilities can be abused . A macchanger isn't going to effect your privacy on the web because it's your external ip address that gets used on the web. Your mac address is only known in the switches/routers on your local lan and doesn't get sent across the internet. Lastly you don't need macchanger to change your mac address you can just add it manually to your network interface configuration. Or are you talking about something else, then vulnerabilities would be the wrong word?
MatsuShimizu
Well-Known Member
If you use public wifi, it is a privacy risk because the wifi admin will be able to see your device type and MAC address. If you are using a private connection, it should be no problem.
Anyone who use the same wifi connection as yours will be able to see your device type too, if he uses tools like nmap. Details and how to use nmap from ITSFoss below.
How to Find What Devices are Connected to Network in Linux
Learn how to find devices connected to your local network in Linux.
itsfoss.com
Reddit - Dive into anything
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Privacy and anonymity are two different animals. In my mind privacy refers data and anonymity refers to identity. Privacy for data at rest is fairly easy to achieve. Data on the wire with even the best encryption is only as good as the remote end. You have to go on trust at that point. Identity is a bit more difficult. For example I have used a TOR browser to proxy my way around various things however I would not trust that to protect my identity. I would suspect US entities like the NSA own some of the TOR infrastructure and other countries have likely done the same. I do believe you can use things like this to keep casual monitors away not state actors. For me those things are not of great concern. I know in other countries these thoughts are quite scary and understandably so. I have spent a significant time in information security. I have too much understanding and even a greater imagination so its easy to get carried away with ones protection. I think with enough reasonable security hygiene you can keep yourself out of harms way. My best advise is always proceed with the thought that anything you communicate over may be compromised. You want to limit attacks on you limit what goes out on the wire. Don't live in fear but proceed with caution... 
Macchanger just temporarily changes your MAC address, hiding your PC’s true MAC address. The MAC is a unique identifier built into the hardware, that can uniquely identify your device.
So for example - if you’re conducting a covert pen-test (with permission) on a corporate network, you would use macchanger to hide your true MAC address. And rather than using a random MAC, which might alert the sys-admins that you’re there, because a new unknown device has connected. And if you use anything too obviously fake, it will look even more suspicious. So you might set macchanger to use the MAC of another device on the network.
So all macchanger does is spoof your MAC address. It has nothing to do with exploiting vulnerabilities. And it doesn’t expose you to any vulnerabilities either!
So for example - if you’re conducting a covert pen-test (with permission) on a corporate network, you would use macchanger to hide your true MAC address. And rather than using a random MAC, which might alert the sys-admins that you’re there, because a new unknown device has connected. And if you use anything too obviously fake, it will look even more suspicious. So you might set macchanger to use the MAC of another device on the network.
So all macchanger does is spoof your MAC address. It has nothing to do with exploiting vulnerabilities. And it doesn’t expose you to any vulnerabilities either!
