From: Ai (bsdusr2003yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Apr 01 2005 - 19:38:27 CST

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I submitted a kernel code some time ago that "enables setting
arbitrary MAC address in OpenBSD via ifconfig and hostname.*" I
think it is relatively clean. The code and notes are still
availiable at
http://homepage.mac.com/quension/setmac.patch

At this point it only supports NIC cards in these modules: dc, fxp,
and xl. Some one has suggested that it can be done for all NIC cards
without touching the individual modules. Nevertheless, if you look
at the change to dc.c, fxp.c, and xl.c, you will find that the
changes are very similar and can be added to other modules easily.

--- Theo de Raadt <deraadtcvs.openbsd.org> wrote:
> > So here are a couple of points that I want to bring up here about
> why
> > OpenBSD should allow one to change the MAC address on the
> physical
> > interfaces...
> >
> > 1) There are a lots of people who may not have a normal ISP (EG:
> Broken
> > Cable TV providers) out in the middle of po'dunk country, cable
> really
> > is the only thing as dialup can fail or become a very
> intermittent
> > connection method.
> > 2) There is very little security gain for protecting the MAC of a
>
> > network card, as other OSes allow the changes of MAC addresses
> with out
> > issue. (if everyone else didn't, then I would have to say that
> there
> > may be validity to this. )
> > 3) My wife just spent 3 hours on the phone with said cable
> company with
> > out good results, this is of course for one of her clients that
> is
> > literately in the middle of nowhere, cable internet in the best
> choice
> > for them hands down as T1 costs are out of the companys budget.
> If she
> > could have changed the mac address to one that was registered
> > previously she would be on her way and the client would be really
>
> > happy! Now she is going to have to have the client wait for the
> cable
> > company and that means another 24-48 hours of downtime. And the
> client
> > will now be mad at her rather then the cable company, and in-turn
> she
> > may have to move to a different OS...
> >
> > All I am asking for is a tool to change the MAC addresses that is
>
> > supported, and included with the base OS, either in misc or base,
> but
> > something that does not have to be compiled and then moved to the
> box,
> > think embedded, think remote user with no access to the box at
> all!
> > The tools can be run before changing security levels, but it
> needs to
> > be supported/tested with the code.
> >
> > Let me know if I am way off my rocker- but in order to compete
> some
> > features need to be added (eg: ntp, bgp, carp, etc.)
> >
> > The OpenBSD developers always do a great job, Thanks so much!
>
> This will happen when someone writes the proper clean changes for
> ifconfig and sys/net, and not before.

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