Randomized and Changing MAC Address: Context, Network Impacts, and Use Cases

Internet-Draft	RCM Use Cases	December 2024
Henry & Lee	Expires 23 June 2025	[Page]

Abstract

To limit the privacy issues created by the association between a device, its traffic, its location, and its user in [IEEE_802] networks, client and client Operating System vendors have started implementing MAC address randomization. This technology is particularly important in Wi-Fi [IEEE_802.11] networks due to the over-the-air medium and device mobility. When such randomization happens, some in-network states may break, which may affect network connectivity and user experience. At the same time, devices may continue using other stable identifiers, defeating the MAC address randomization purposes.¶

This document lists various network environments and a range of network services that may be affected by such randomization. This document then examines settings where the user experience may be affected by in-network state disruption. Last, this document examines two existing frameworks to maintain user privacy while preserving user quality of experience and network operation efficiency.¶

1. Introduction

When MAC-Address was first introduced in [IEEE_802] Standard, it was used in wired Ethernet network [IEEE_802.3]. Due to the nature of the wired network, devices were relatively stationary and the physical connection imposed a boundary to restrict attackers to easily access the network data. But [IEEE_802.11] (Wi-Fi) brought new challenges when it was introduced.¶

The flexibility of Wi-Fi technology has revolutionized communications and become the preferred, and sometimes the only technology used by devices such as laptops, tablets, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Wi-Fi is an over-the-air medium that allows attackers with surveillance equipment to monitor WLAN packets and track the activity of WLAN devices. It is also sometimes possible for attackers to monitor the WLAN packets behind the Wi-Fi Access Point (AP) over the wired Ethernet. Once the association between a device and its user is made, identifying the device and its activity is sufficient to deduce information about what the user is doing, without the user's consent.¶

To reduce the risks of identifying a device only by the MAC address, client OS vendors have started implementing Randomized and Changing MAC addresses (RCM). By randomizing the MAC address, it becomes harder to use the MAC address to construct a persistent association between a flow of data packets and a device, assuming no other visible unique identifiers or stable patterns are in use. When individual devices are no longer easily identifiable, it also becomes difficult to associate a series of network packet flows in a prolonged period with a particular individual using one specific device if the device randomizes the MAC address governed by the OS privacy policies.¶

However, such address change may affect the user experience and the efficiency of legitimate network operations. For a long time, network designers and implementers relied on the assumption that a given machine, in a network implementing [IEEE_802] technologies, would be represented by a unique network MAC address that would not change over time. When this assumption is broken, network communication may be disrupted. For example, sessions established between the end-device and network services may break and packets in transit may suddenly be lost. If multiple clients implement aggressive (e.g., once an hour or shorter) MAC address randomization without coordination with network services, some network services such as MAC address cache in the AP and the upstream layer-2 switch may not be able to handle the load that may result in unexpected network interruption.¶

At the same time, some network services rely on the end station (as defined by the [IEEE_802] Standard, also called in this document device, or machine) providing an identifier, which can be the MAC address or another value. If the client implements MAC address randomization but continues sending the same static identifier, then the association between a stable identifier and the station continues despite the RCM scheme. There may be environments where such continued association is desirable, but others where user privacy has more value than any continuity of network service state.¶

It is useful for implementations of client and network devices to enumerate services that may be affected by RCM and evaluate possible framework to maintain both the quality of user experience and network efficiency while RCM happens, and user privacy is strengthened. This document presents these assessments and recommendations.¶

Although this document mainly discusses MAC-Address randomization in Wi-Fi [IEEE_802.11] networks, same principles can be easily extended to any [IEEE_802.3] networks.¶

This document is organized as follows. Section 2 discusses the current status of using MAC address as identity. Section 3 discusses various actors in the network that will be impacted by MAC address randomization. Section 4 examines the degrees of trust between personal devices and the entities at play in a network domain. Section 5 discusses various network environments that will be impacted. Section 6 analyzes some existing network services that will be impacted. Finally, Appendix A includes some frameworks that are being worked on.¶

2. MAC Address as Identity: User vs. Device

The Media Access Control (MAC) layer of IEEE 802.3 [IEEE_802.3] technologies define rules to control how a device accesses the shared medium. In a network where a machine can communicate with one or more other machines, one such rule is that each machine needs to be identified either as the target destination of a message or as the source of a message (and the target destination of the answer). Initially intended as a 48-bit (6 octets) value in the first versions of the [IEEE_802.3] Standard, other Standards under the [IEEE_802.3] umbrella allow this address to take an extended format of 64 bits (8 octets) which enable a larger number of MAC addresses to coexist as the 802.3 technologies became widely adopted.¶

Regardless of the address length, different networks have different needs, and several bits of the first octet are reserved for specific purposes. In particular, the first bit is used to identify the destination address as an individual (bit set to 0) or a group address (bit set to 1). The second bit, called the Universally or Locally Administered (U/L) Address Bit, indicates whether the address has been assigned by a universal or local administrator. Universally administered addresses have this bit set to 0. If this bit is set to 1, the entire address is considered locally administered (clause 8.4 of [IEEE_802]). Note that universally administered MAC addresses are required to register to IEEE while locally administered MAC addresses are not.¶

The intent of this provision is important for the present document. The [IEEE_802] Standard recognized that some devices (e.g., smart thermostats) may never change their attachment network and will not need a globally unique MAC address to prevent address collision against any other device in any other network. The U/L bit can be set to signal to the network that the MAC Address is intended to be locally unique (not globally unique). [IEEE_802] did not initially define the MAC Address allocation schema when the U/L bit is set to 1. It states the address must be unique in a given broadcast domain (i.e., the space where the MAC addresses of devices are visible to one another).¶

It is also important to note that the purpose of the Universal version of the address was to avoid collisions and confusion, as any machine could connect to any network, and each machine needs to determine if it is the intended destination of a message or its response. Clause 8.4 of [IEEE_802] reminds network designers and operators that all potential members of a network need to have a unique identifier in that network (if they are going to coexist in the network without confusion on which machine is the source or destination or any message). The advantage of an administrated address is that a node with such an address can be attached to any Local Area Network (LAN) in the world with an assurance that its address is unique in that network.¶

With the rapid development of wireless technologies and mobile devices, this scenario became very common. With a vast majority of networks implementing [IEEE_802] radio technologies at the access, the MAC address of a wireless device can appear anywhere on the planet and collisions should still be avoided. However, the same evolution brought the distinction between two types of devices that the [IEEE_802] Standard generally referred to as ‘nodes in a network’. Their definition is found in the [IEEE_802E] Recommended Practice stated in Section 6.2 of [IEEE_802].¶

Shared Service Device, whose functions are used by enough people that the device itself, functions, or its traffic cannot be associated with a single or small group of people. Examples of such devices include switches in a dense network, [IEEE_802.11] (WLAN) access points in a crowded airport, task-specific device (e.g., barcode scanners).¶
Personal Device, which is a machine or node primarily used by a single person or small group of people, and so that any identification of the device or its traffic can also be associated with the identification of the primary user or their online activity.¶

Identifying the device is trivial if it has a unique MAC address. Once this unique MAC address is established, detecting any elements that directly or indirectly identify the user of the device (Personally Identifiable Information, or PII) is enough to link the MAC address to that user. Then, any detection of traffic that can be associated with the device will also be linked to the known user of that device (Personally Correlated Information, or PCI).¶

2.1. Privacy of MAC Address

This possible identification or association presents a privacy issue, especially with wireless technologies. For most of them, and in particular for [IEEE_802.11], the source and destination MAC addresses are not encrypted even in networks that implement encryption (so that each machine can easily detect if it is the intended target of the message before attempting to decrypt its content, and also identify the transmitter, to use the right decryption key when multiple unicast keys are in effect).¶

This identification of the user associated with a node was clearly not the intent of the 802 MAC address. A logical solution to remove this association is to use a locally administered address instead and change the address in a fashion that prevents a continuous association between one MAC address and some PII. However, other network devices on the same LAN implementing a MAC layer also expect each device to be associated with a MAC address that would persist over time. When a device changes its MAC address, other devices on the same LAN may fail to recognize that the same machine is attempting to communicate with them. This type of MAC addresses is referred to as 'persistent' MAC address in this document. This assumption sometimes adds to the PII confusion, for example in the case of Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) services [RFC3539] authenticating the user of a machine and associating the authenticated user to the device MAC address. Other services solely focus on the machine (e.g., DHCPv4 [RFC2131]), but still expect each device to use a persistent MAC address, for example to re-assign the same IP address to a returning device. Changing the MAC address may disrupt these services.¶

3. The Actors: Network Functional Entities and Human Entities

The risk of service disruption is weighed against the privacy benefits. However, the plurality of actors involved in the exchanges tends to blur the boundaries of what privacy violations should be protected against. It is therefore useful to list the actors associated with the network exchanges, either because they actively participate in these exchanges, or because they can observe them. Some actors are functional entities, while some others are human (or related) entities.¶

3.1. Network Functional Entities

Network communications based on IEEE 802 technologies commonly rely on station identifiers based on a MAC address. This MAC address is utilized by several types of network functional entities such as applications or devices that provide a service related to network operations.¶

Wireless access network infrastructure devices (e.g., WLAN access points or controllers): these devices participate in IEEE 802 LAN operations. As such, they need to identify each machine as a source or destination to successfully continue exchanging frames. As a device changes its network attachment (roams) from one access point to another, the access points can exchange contextual information, (e.g., device MAC, keying material), allowing the device session to continue seamlessly. These access points can also inform devices further in the wired network about the roam to ensure that layer-2 frames are redirected to the new device access point.¶
Other network devices operating at the MAC layer: many wireless network access devices (e.g., [IEEE_802.11] access points) are conceived as layer-2 devices, and as such, they bridge a frame from one medium (e.g., [IEEE_802.11] or Wi-Fi) to another (e.g., [IEEE_802.3] or Ethernet). This means that a wireless device MAC address often exists on the wire beyond the wireless access device. Devices connected to this wire also implement [IEEE_802.3] technologies and, as such, operate on the expectation that each device is associated with a MAC address that persists for the duration of continuous exchanges. For example, switches and bridges associate MAC addresses to individual ports (so as to know to which port to send a frame intended for a particular MAC address). Similarly, AAA services can validate the identity of a device and use the device's MAC address as a first pointer to the device identity (before operating further verification). Similarly, some networking devices offer layer-2 filtering policies that may rely on the connected MAC addresses. 802.1X-enabled [IEEE_802.1X] devices may also selectively put the interface in a blocking state until a connecting device is authenticated. These services then use the MAC address as a first pointer to the device identity to allow or block data traffic. This list is not exhaustive. Multiple services are defined for [IEEE_802.3] networks, and multiple services defined by the IEEE 802.1 working group are also applicable to [IEEE_802.3] networks. Wireless access points may also connect to other mediums than [IEEE_802.3] (e.g., DOCSIS [DOCSIS]), which also implements mechanisms under the umbrella of the general 802 Standard, and therefore expect the unique and persistent association of a MAC address to a device.¶
Network devices operating at upper layers: some network devices provide functions and services above the MAC layer. Some of them also operate a MAC layer function: for example, routers provide IP forwarding services but rely on the device MAC address to create the appropriate frame structure. Other devices and services operate at upper layers but also rely upon the 802 principles of unique MAC-to-device mapping. For example, Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) [RFC826] and Neighbor Discovery Protocol (NDP) [RFC4861] use MAC address to create the mapping of an IP address to a MAC address for packet forwarding. If a device changes its MAC address without a mechanism to notify the layer-2 switch it is connected to or the provider of a service that expects a stable MAC-to-device mapping, the provider of the service and traffic forwarding may be disrupted.¶

Humans may actively participate in the network structure and operations, or be observers at any point of the network lifecycle. Humans could be wireless device users or people operating wireless networks.¶

Over-The-Air (OTA) observers: as the transmitting or receiving MAC address is usually not encrypted in wireless 802-technologies exchanges, and as any protocol-compatible device in range of the signal can read the frame header. As such OTA observers are able to read the MAC addresses of individual transmissions. Some wireless technologies also support techniques to establish distances or positions, allowing the observer, in some cases, to uniquely associate the MAC address with a physical device and its associated location. An OTA observer may have a legitimate reason to monitor a particular device, for example, for IT support operations. However, another actor might also monitor the same device to obtain PII or PCI.¶
Wireless access network operators: some wireless access networks host devices that meet specific requirements, such as device type (e.g., IoT-only networks, factory operational networks). Therefore, operators can attempt to identify the devices (or the users) connecting to the networks under their care. They often use the MAC address to represent an identified device.¶
Network access providers: wireless access networks are often considered beyond the first 2 layers of the OSI model. For example, law enforcement agency (e.g., FBI in the United States) may legally require the network access provider to identify communications from a subject. In this context, the operating access networks need to identify the devices used by the subjects and cross-reference the data generated by the devices in the network. In other contexts, the operating access networks assign resources based on contractual conditions (e.g., fee, bandwidth fair share). In these scenarios, the operators may use the MAC address to identify the devices and the users of their networks.¶
Over-The-Wired internal (OTWi) observers: because the device wireless MAC address continues to be present over the wire if the infrastructure connection device (e.g., access point) functions as a layer-2 bridge, observers may be positioned over the wire and read transmission MAC addresses. Such capability supposes that the observer has access to the wired segment of the broadcast domain where the frames are exchanged. A broadcast domain is a logical segment of a network in which devices can send, receive, and monitor data frames from all other devices within the same segment. In most networks, such capability requires physical access to an infrastructure wired device in the broadcast domain (e.g., switch closet), and is therefore not accessible to all.¶
Over-The-Wired external (OTWe) observers: beyond the broadcast domain, frame headers are removed by a routing device, and a new layer-2 header is added before the frame is transmitted to the next segment. The device MAC address is not visible anymore unless a mechanism copies the MAC address into a field that can be read while the packet travels onto the next segment (e.g., pre- [RFC4941] and pre-[RFC7217] IPv6 addresses built from the MAC address). Therefore, unless this last condition exists, OTWe observers are not able to see the device's MAC address.¶

4. Degrees of Trust

The surface of PII exposures that can drive MAC address randomization depends on (1) the environment where the device operates, (2) the presence and nature of other devices in the environment, and (3) the type of network the device is communicating through. Consequently, a device can use an identifier (such as a MAC address) that can persist over time if trust with the environment is established, or that can be temporary if an identifier is required for a service in an environment where trust has not been established. Note that trust is not binary. It is useful to distinguish what trust a personal device may establish with the different entities at play in a network domain where a MAC address may be visible:¶

Full trust: there is environment where a device establishes a trust relationship, and the device can share its persistent MAC address with the access network devices (e.g., access point and WLAN Controller). In this environment, the network provides necessary security measures to prevent observers or network actors from accessing PII. The device (or its user) also has confidence that its MAC address is not shared beyond the layer-2 broadcast domain boundary.¶
Selective trust: in another environment, depending on the pre-defined privacy policies, a device may decide to use one pseudo-persistent MAC address for a set of network elements and another pseudo-persistent MAC address for another set of network elements. Examples of privacy policies can be SSID and BSSID combination, a particular time-of-day, or a pre-set time duration.¶
Zero trust: in another environment, a device may randomize its MAC address with any local entity reachable through the AP. It may generate a temporary MAC address to each of them. That temporary MAC address may or may not be the same for different services.¶

5. Environment

The trust relationship depends on the relationship between the user of a personal device and the operator of a network service that the personal device may use. It is useful to observe the typical trust structure of common environments:¶

Residential settings under the control of the user: this is a typical home network with Wi-Fi in the LAN and Internet in the WAN. In this environment, traffic over the Internet does not expose the MAC address of the internal device if it is not copied to another field before routing happens. The wire segment within the broadcast domain is under the control of the user and is usually not at risk of hosting an eavesdropper. Full trust is typically established at this level among users and with the network elements. Note that Full trust in this context is referring to the MAC address persistency. It does not extend to full trust between applications or devices. The device trusts the access point and all layer-2 domain entities beyond the access point, where the Wi-Fi transmissions can be detected, there is no guarantee that an eavesdropper will not observe the communications. As such, it is common to assume that, even in this environment, attackers may still be able to monitor the unencrypted information such as MAC addresses. If a device decided to not fully trust the network, it might apply any necessary policy to protect its identity. Most devices in the network only require simple connectivity so that the network services are simple. For network support, it is also simple. It is usually related to Internet connectivity.¶
Managed residential settings: examples of this type of environments include shared living facilities and other collective environments where an operator manages the network for the residents. The OTA exposure is similar to (A). The operator may be requested to provide IT support to the residents and may need to identify a device activity in real-time. It may also need to analyze logs. The infrastructure is shared and covers a larger area than (A), residents may connect to the network from different locations. For example, they may regularly connect to the network from their own apartments. They may occasionally connect to the network from common areas. The device may decide to use different pseudo-persistent MAC address as we described in Section 4. As such, the trust degree is Selective trust. In this environment, the network services will be slightly more complex than (A). Network may be segmented by locations and multiple SSID. User's devices should be able to join the network without pre-certification and pre-approval. In most cases, users only need simple connectivity; thus, network support will be slightly but not significantly more complicated than (A).¶
Public guest networks: public hotspots in shopping malls, hotels, stores, train stations, and airports are typical examples of this environment. In this environment, trust is commonly not established with any element of the layer-2 broadcast domain. Users do not anticipate a public guest network using the MAC address information to identify their location and network activity. They do not trust the network and do not want the network to memorize them permanently. The trust degree is Zero. Devices in this network should avoid using long-lived MAC address to prevent fingerprinting. For example, the device may use a different MAC address every time it attaches to a new Wi-Fi access point. Some guest network operators may legally abide to identify devices. They should not use the MAC address for such function. Most users connecting to public guest network only expect simple Internet connectivity services, so the network services are simple. If users have issue to connect to the network or to access the Internet, they expect limited to no technical support. Thus, the network support level is low.¶
Enterprises with Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD): this type of networks are similar to (B) except that the onboarding devices are subjected to pre-approval and pre-certification. The devices are usually personal devices and are not under the control of the corporate IT team. Compared to residential network, enterprise network usually provides more sophisticated network services including but not limited to application-based network policies and identity-based network policies. Change of MAC address may interrupt network services if the services are based on MAC address. Thus, network operations will be more complex, so the network support level is high.¶
Managed enterprises: in this environment: this type of networks are similar to (C). The main difference is the devices are owned and managed by the enterprise. Given the network and the devices are owned and managed by the enterprise, the trust degree is Full trust. Network services and network support level are same as (D)¶

Table 1 summarizes the environment in a table format.¶

Table 1: Use Cases
Use Cases	Trust Degree	Network Admin	Network Services	Network Support Expectation
(A) Residential settings under the control of the user	Full trust	User	Simple	Low
(B) Managed residential settings	Selective trust	IT	Medium	Medium
(C) Public guest networks	Zero trust	ISP	Simple	Low
(D) Enterprises with Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD)	Selective trust	IT	Complex	High
(E) Managed enterprises	Full trust	IT	Complex	High

Existing technical frameworks that address some of the requirements of the use cases listed above in Appendix A.¶

6. Network Services

Different network environments provide different levels of network services, from simple to complex. At its simplest level, a network can provide a wireless connecting device basic IP communication service (e.g., DHCPv4 [RFC2131] or SLAAC [RFC4862]) and an ability to connect to the Internet (e.g., DNS service or relay, and routing in and out through a local gateway). The network can also offer more advanced services, such as managed instant messaging service, file storage, printing, and/or local web service. Larger and more complex networks can also incorporate more advanced services, from AAA to AR/VR applications. To the network, its top priority is to provide the best Quality of Experience to its users. Often the network contains policies which help to make forwarding decision based on the network conditions, the device, and the user identity associated to the device. For example, in a hospital private network, the network may contain policy to give highest priority to doctors' Voice-Over-IP packets. In another example, an enterprise network may contain policy to allow applications from a group of authenticated devices to use ECN [RFC3168] for congestion and/or DSCP [RFC8837] for classification to signal the network for specific network policy. In this configuration, the network is required to associate the data packets to an identity to validate the legitimacy of the marking. Before RCM, many network systems use MAC address as a persistent identity to create an association between user and device. After RCM being implemented, the association is broken.¶

6.1. Device Identification and Associated Problems

Wireless access points and controllers use the MAC address to validate the device connection context, including protocol capabilities, confirmation that authentication was completed, Quality of Service or security profiles, and encryption keying material. Some advanced access points and controllers also include upper layer functions whose purpose is covered below. A device changing its MAC address, without another recorded device identity, would cause the access point and the controller to lose the relation between a connection context and the corresponding device. As such, the layer-2 infrastructure does not know that the device (with its new MAC address) is authorized to communicate through the network. The encryption keying material is not identified anymore (causing the access point to fail to decrypt the device packets and fail to select the right key to send encrypted packets to the device). In short, the entire context needs to be rebuilt, and a new session restarted. The time consumed by this procedure breaks any flow that needs continuity or short delay between packets on the device (e.g., real-time audio, video, AR/VR, etc.). For example: [IEEE_802.11i] recognizes that a device may leave and re-join the network after a short time window. As such, the standard suggests that the infrastructure should keep the context for a device for a while after the device was last seen. The device should maintain the same MAC address in such scenario.¶

Some network equipment such as Multi-Layer routers and Wi-Fi Access Points which serve both layer-2 and layer-3 in the same device rely on ARP [RFC826], and NDP [RFC4861], to build the MAC-to-IP table for packet forwarding. The size of the MAC address cache in the layer-2 switch is finite. If new entries are created faster than the old entries flushed by the idle timer, it is possible to cause unintentional deny-of-service attack. For example, default timeout of MAC address cache in Linux is set to 300s. Aggressive MAC randomization from many devices in a short time interval (e.g., less than 300s) may cause the layer-2 switch to exhaust its resources, holding in memory traffic for a device whose entry can no longer be found. For the RCM device, these effects translate into session discontinuity and disrupt the active sessions. The discontinuity impact may vary. Real-time applications such as video conference may experience short interruption while non-real-time applications such as video streaming may experience minimal or no impact. The device should carefully balance when to change the MAC address after analyzing the nature of the running applications and its privacy policy.¶

In wireless contexts, [IEEE_802.1X] authenticators rely on the device and user identity validation provided by an AAA server to change the interface from a blocking state to a forwarding state. The MAC address is used to verify that the device is in the authorized list, and to retrieve the associated key used to decrypt the device traffic. A change in MAC address causes the port to be closed to the device data traffic until the AAA server confirms the validity of the new MAC address. Consequently, MAC address randomization can disrupt the device traffic and strain the AAA server.¶

DHCPv4 servers [RFC2131], without a unique identification of the device, lose track of which IP address is validly assigned. Unless the RCM device releases the IP address before changing its MAC address, DHCPv4 servers are at risk of scope exhaustion, causing new devices (and RCM devices) to fail to obtain a new IP address. Even if the RCM device releases the IP address before changing the MAC address, the DHCPv4 server typically holds the released IP address for a certain duration, in case the leaving MAC returns. As the DHCPv4 [RFC2131] server cannot know if the release is due to a temporary disconnection or a MAC randomization, the risk of scope address exhaustion exists even in cases where the IP address is released.¶

Network devices with self-assigned IPv6 addresses (e.g., with SLAAC defined in [RFC4862]) and devices using static IP addresses rely on mechanisms like Optimistic Duplicate Address Detection (DAD) [RFC4429] and NDP [RFC4861] for peer devices to establish the association between the target IP address and a MAC address, and these peers may cache this association in memory. Changing the MAC address, even at disconnection-reconnection phase, without changing the IP address, may disrupt the stability of these mappings for these peers, if the change occurs within the caching period. Note that this behavior is against standard operation and existing privacy recommendations. Implementations must avoid changing MAC address while maintaining previously assigned IP address without consulting the network.¶

Routers keep track of which MAC address is on which interface, so they can form the proper Data Link header when forwarding a packet to a segment where MAC addresses are used. MAC address randomization can cause MAC address cache exhaustion, but also the need for frequent Address Resolution Protocol (ARP), Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP) [RFC826], Neighbor Solicitation and, Neighbor Advertisement [RFC4861] exchanges.¶

In residential settings (environment type A in Section 5), policies can be in place to control the traffic of some devices (e.g., parental control or block-list filters). These policies are often based on the device's MAC address. MAC address randomization removes the possibility for such control.¶

In residential settings (environment type A) and in enterprises (environment types D and E), device recognition and ranging may be used for IoT-related functionalities (door unlock, preferred light and temperature configuration, etc.) These functions often rely on the detection of the device's wireless MAC address. MAC address randomization breaks the services based on such model.¶

In managed residential settings (environment types B) and in enterprises (environment types D and E), the network operator is often requested to provide IT support. With MAC address randomization, real-time support is only possible if the user can provide the current MAC address. Service improvement support is not possible if the MAC address that the device had at the (past) time of the reported issue is not known at the time the issue is reported.¶

In industrial environments, policies are associated with each group of objects, including IoT devices. MAC address randomization may prevent an IoT device from being identified properly, thus leading to network quarantine and disruption of operations.¶

9. Informative References

[DOCSIS]: "DOCSIS 4.0 Physical Layer Specification Version I06, DOI CM-SP-CM-OSSIv4.0", CableLabs DOCSIS , March 2022, <https://www.cablelabs.com/specifications/CM-SP-CM-OSSIv4.0?v=I06>.
[I-D.ietf-radext-deprecating-radius]: DeKok, A., "Deprecating Insecure Practices in RADIUS", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-radext-deprecating-radius-05, 26 November 2024, <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-radext-deprecating-radius-05>.
[I-D.tomas-openroaming]: Tomas, B., Grayson, M., Canpolat, N., Cockrell, B., and S. Gundavelli, "WBA OpenRoaming Wireless Federation, Work in Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-tomas-openroaming-03", 25 July 2024, <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-tomas-openroaming-03>.
[IEEE_802]: "IEEE Std 802 - IEEE Standard for Local and Metropolitan Area Networks: Overview and Architecture, DOI 10.1109/IEEESTD.2014.6847097", IEEE 802 , 30 June 2014, <https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6847097>.
[IEEE_802.11]: "IEEE 802.11-2020 - Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications", IEEE 802.11 , 11 February 2021, <https://standards.ieee.org/ieee/802.11/7028/>.
[IEEE_802.11bh]: "IEEE 802.11bh-2023 - Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications Amendment 8 : Operation with Randomized and Changing MAC Addresses", IEEE 802.11bh , 19 July 2023, <https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10214483>.
[IEEE_802.11i]: "IEEE 802.11i-2004 - Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) specifications: Amendment 6: Medium Access Control (MAC) Security Enhancements, DOI 10.1109/IEEESTD.2004.94585", IEEE 802.11i , 24 July 2004, <https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1318903>.
[IEEE_802.1X]: "IEEE 802.1X-2020 - IEEE Standard for Local and Metropolitan Area Networks--Port-Based Network Access Control, DOI 10.1109/IEEESTD.2020.9018454", IEEE 802.1X , 28 February 2020, <https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9018454>.
[IEEE_802.3]: "IEEE 802.3-2018 - IEEE Standard for Ethernet", IEEE 802.3 , 31 August 2018, <https://standards.ieee.org/ieee/802.3/7071/>.
[IEEE_802E]: "IEEE 802E-2020 - IEEE Recommended Practice for Privacy Considerations for IEEE 802(R) Technologies", IEEE 802E , 13 November 2020, <https://standards.ieee.org/ieee/802E/6242/>.
[RFC2131]: Droms, R., "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol", RFC 2131, DOI 10.17487/RFC2131, March 1997, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2131>.
[RFC3168]: Ramakrishnan, K., Floyd, S., and D. Black, "The Addition of Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) to IP", RFC 3168, DOI 10.17487/RFC3168, September 2001, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3168>.
[RFC3539]: Aboba, B. and J. Wood, "Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) Transport Profile", RFC 3539, DOI 10.17487/RFC3539, June 2003, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3539>.
[RFC4429]: Moore, N., "Optimistic Duplicate Address Detection (DAD) for IPv6", RFC 4429, DOI 10.17487/RFC4429, April 2006, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4429>.
[RFC4861]: Narten, T., Nordmark, E., Simpson, W., and H. Soliman, "Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)", RFC 4861, DOI 10.17487/RFC4861, September 2007, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4861>.
[RFC4862]: Thomson, S., Narten, T., and T. Jinmei, "IPv6 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration", RFC 4862, DOI 10.17487/RFC4862, September 2007, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4862>.
[RFC4941]: Narten, T., Draves, R., and S. Krishnan, "Privacy Extensions for Stateless Address Autoconfiguration in IPv6", RFC 4941, DOI 10.17487/RFC4941, September 2007, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4941>.
[RFC6614]: Winter, S., McCauley, M., Venaas, S., and K. Wierenga, "Transport Layer Security (TLS) Encryption for RADIUS", RFC 6614, DOI 10.17487/RFC6614, May 2012, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6614>.
[RFC7217]: Gont, F., "A Method for Generating Semantically Opaque Interface Identifiers with IPv6 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration (SLAAC)", RFC 7217, DOI 10.17487/RFC7217, April 2014, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7217>.
[RFC826]: Plummer, D., "An Ethernet Address Resolution Protocol: Or Converting Network Protocol Addresses to 48.bit Ethernet Address for Transmission on Ethernet Hardware", STD 37, RFC 826, DOI 10.17487/RFC0826, November 1982, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc826>.
[RFC8837]: Jones, P., Dhesikan, S., Jennings, C., and D. Druta, "Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) Packet Markings for WebRTC QoS", RFC 8837, DOI 10.17487/RFC8837, January 2021, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8837>.

Appendix A. Existing Frameworks

A.1. 802.1X with WPA2 / WPA3

In typical enterprise Wi-Fi environment, 802.1X authentication [IEEE_802.1X] coupled with WPA2 or WPA3 [IEEE_802.11i] encryption schemes are commonly used for onboarding a Wi-Fi device. This allows the mutual identification of the client device or the user of the device and an authentication authority. The authentication exchange does not occur in clear text, and the user or the device identity can be concealed from unauthorized observers. However, the authentication authority is in most cases under the control of the same entity as the network access provider. This may lead to expose the user or device identity to the network owner.¶

This scheme is well-adapted to enterprise environment, where a level of trust is established between the user and the enterprise network operator. In this scheme, MAC address randomization can occur through brief disconnections and reconnections (under the rules of [IEEE_802.11bh]). Authentication may then need to reoccur, with an associated cost of service disruption and additional load on the enterprise infrastructure, and an associated benefit of limiting the exposure of a continuous MAC address to external observers. The adoption of this scheme is limited outside of the enterprise environment by the requirement to install an authentication profile on the end device, which would be recognized and accepted by a local authentication authority and its authentication server. Such a server is uncommon in a home environment, and the procedure to install a profile is cumbersome for most untrained users. The likelihood that a user or device profile would match a profile recognized by a public Wi-Fi authentication authority is also fairly limited. This may restrict the adoption of this scheme for public Wi-Fi as well. Similar limitations are found in hospitality environment. Hospitality environment refers to space provided by hospitality industry, which includes but not limited to hotels, stadiums, restaurants, concert halls and hospitals.¶

A.2. OpenRoaming

In order to alleviate some of the limitations listed above, the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) OpenRoaming Standard introduces an intermediate trusted relay between local venues (places where some public Wi-Fi is available) and sources of identity [I-D.tomas-openroaming]. The federation structure extends the type of authorities that can be used as identity sources (compared to traditional enterprise-based 802.1X [IEEE_802.1X] scheme for Wi-Fi), and facilitates the establishment of trust between local networks and an identity provider. Such a procedure increases the likelihood that one or more identity profiles for the user or the device will be recognized by a local network. At the same time, authentication does not occur to the local network. This may offer the possibility for the user or the device to keep their identity obfuscated from the local network operator, unless that operator specifically expresses the requirement to disclose such identity (in which case the user has the option to accept or decline the connection and associated identity exposure).¶

The OpenRoaming scheme seems well-adapted to public Wi-Fi and hospitality environment. It defines a framework to protect the identity from unauthorized entities while to permit mutual authentication between the device or the user and a trusted identity provider. Just like with standard 802.1X [IEEE_802.1X] scheme for Wi-Fi, authentication allows for the establishment of WPA2 or WPA3 keys [IEEE_802.11i] that can then be used to encrypt the communication between the device and the access point. The encryption adds extra protection to prevent the network traffic from being eavesdropped.¶

MAC address randomization can occur through brief disconnections and reconnections (under the rules of [IEEE_802.11bh]). Authentication may then need to reoccur, with an associated cost of service disruption and additional load on the venue and identity provider infrastructure, and an associated benefit of limiting the exposure of a continuous MAC address to external observers. Limitations of this scheme include the requirement to first install one or more profiles on the client device. This scheme also requires the local network to support RADSEC [RFC6614] and the relay function, which may not be common in small hotspot networks and home environment.¶

It is worth noting that, as part of collaborations between IETF MADINAS and WBA around OpenRoaming, some RADIUS privacy enhancements have been proposed in the IETF RADEXT group. For instance, [I-D.ietf-radext-deprecating-radius] describes good practices in the use of Chargeable-User-Identity (CUI) between different visited networks, making it better suited for Public Wi-Fi and Hospitality use cases.¶

A.3. Proprietary RCM schemes

Most client device operating system vendors offer RCM schemes, enabled by default (or easy to enable) on client devices. With these schemes, the device changes its MAC address, when not associated, after having used a given MAC address for a semi-random duration window. These schemes also allow for the device to manifest a different MAC address in different SSIDs.¶

Such a randomization scheme enables the device to limit the duration of exposure of a single MAC address to observers. In [IEEE_802.11bh], MAC address randomization is not allowed during a given association session, and MAC address randomization can only occur through disconnection and reconnection. Authentication may then need to reoccur, with an associated cost of service disruption and additional load on the venue and identity provider infrastructure, directly proportional to the frequency of the randomization. The scheme is also not intended to protect from the exposure of other identifiers to the venue network (e.g., DHCP option 012 [host name] visible to the network between the AP and the DHCPv4 server).¶