thinQmaster Virtual testing partner Adaptive practice exams that find your weak spots and drill them. Every answer explained. From $69
Enroll

thinQmaster

Find your exam

Five questions free, before you decide.

Step 1 · choose a vendor

In one of our camps? Your practice exams come with the tuition — they are on your study page already.

Wireless & Mobility · Intermediate

MAC Address Randomization

Client privacy feature that uses random MAC addresses for scanning or per network.

Definition

Modern operating systems use randomized MACs for probe requests and often per-SSID private addresses for association. This prevents tracking but breaks MAC-based policies such as MAB, captive portal memory, and DHCP reservations. Enterprise SSIDs should identify devices by 802.1X identity instead.

Example

iOS shows a Private Wi-Fi Address setting for each network.

Exam tip

Randomized MACs have the locally administered bit set.

Related terms