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Tracking Protection In Wi-Fi Networks Coming Soon To Linux
prisoninmate writes: Fedora contributor and NetworkManager developer Lubomir Rintel explains how your devices are being identified on a network by a unique number that most of us know by the name of MAC address. Same goes for mobile networking, as your laptop's or mobile phone's MAC address is, in most cases, broadcasted everywhere you go before you even attempt a connection to a wireless network. And that's a problem for your privacy. The solution? Randomization of the MAC address while scanning for Wi-Fi networks. Apple is already using this method on iOS 8 and later mobile operating systems, and so is Microsoft in Windows 10, so Linux users will ["likely"] get it in the upcoming NetworkManager 1.2 release.
This is automatically done when scanning for WiFi access points, which your phone or laptop or whatever is probably doing constantly. When you connect you use whatever MAC rules you normally have.
This is about not advertising your real MAC address to APs you have no intention of connecting to, so third parties (NSA and friends) cant scatter a bunch of APs around town to track your movements.
The MAC randomization used here is only while scanning, not while connecting, in order to not break MAC whitelisting where it may be used.
"What seems like a viable option is randomizing the MAC address while scanning, chainging it every now and then, but still use the hard-wired MAC address for association and actual connectivity. Apple pioneered this approach with its mobile operating system, iOS version 8. Since the worst thing that can happen in an unlikely event of MAC address clash is that your AP list is incomplete for a while it seems like a fairly safe choice."
You are confused. I'm not sure why you were modded up here. NetworkManager is not part of systemd, and doesn't require systemd either. Your linux machines have been using it for years, several years longer than systemd has ever existed. Please get your facts straight before posting.
Sounds like your knee jerked and you mistook NetworkManager for networkd, which is a part of systemd. But networkd is intended only to provide simple network functionality for containers like Docker or virtual machines. networkd is not required, and I've never ever used it on my boxes and I've run systemd for years. I don't even think I have it installed (yes systemd really is modular and you can remove parts of it).
Possibly networkd could become a backend for NetworkManager, but so far I don't think that's the case. And NewtorkManager seems to handle hotplugging of devices with ease (like Wifi dongles or ethernet dongles).
NetworkManager is great for managing things like WiFi, VPNs, and multiple TCP/IP configurations. For example, I keep a special NetworkManager profile for connecting to my Ubuiquiti Wifi devices for the first time. The profile uses a static IP address like 192.168.1.10. For my normal connections, DHCP is used. NetworkManager is very powerful, and there's a nice command-line utility to interface with it as well. It used to be quite embarrassing for many years on Linux that even something as simple as plugging in a ethernet wire would not automatically bring up the interface like Windows and Mac had done for years. NetworkManager was a welcome piece of the puzzle.