Public bug reported: Recent versions of NetworkManager have a feature enabled by default to use a random MAC address when scanning for available Wi-Fi networks for privacy. My understanding is that the spoofed MAC address is not used when actually connecting to a network.
This feature was disabled in Ubuntu 17.10 because it broke scanning with some Wi-Fi drivers. My understanding is that there is a bug in some drivers when attempting to change the MAC address. See LP: #1681513. The bug might not be as big of an issue with the latest version of NetworkManager because 1) There are helpful commits like this (it was not backported to 17.04): https://cgit.freedesktop.org/NetworkManager/NetworkManager/commit/?id=46d53e1 2) It is also possible now to selectively disable Wi-Fi MAC Randomization for specific drivers. https://cgit.freedesktop.org/NetworkManager/NetworkManager/commit/?id=b869d9 However, I'm really hesitant to re-enable this feature as long as A) we don't know for sure which drivers are affected, B) and more importantly, there is no GUI way to turn the feature on or off. Asking users to edit config files isn't very nice. The MAC Address Randomization feature is really nice (Windows 10 has a similar feature) but I think we need a GUI on/off switch in Settings > Wi-Fi or Settings > Privacy. ** Affects: gnome-control-center Importance: Unknown Status: Unknown ** Affects: network-manager Importance: Unknown Status: Unknown ** Affects: gnome-control-center (Ubuntu) Importance: Wishlist Status: Triaged ** Affects: network-manager (Ubuntu) Importance: Wishlist Status: Triaged ** Tags: bionic ** Also affects: gnome-control-center (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Changed in: gnome-control-center (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided => Wishlist ** Changed in: gnome-control-center (Ubuntu) Status: New => Triaged ** Bug watch added: GNOME Bug Tracker #781295 https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=781295 ** Also affects: gnome-control-center via https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=781295 Importance: Unknown Status: Unknown ** Bug watch added: GNOME Bug Tracker #790961 https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=790961 ** Also affects: network-manager via https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=790961 Importance: Unknown Status: Unknown ** Tags added: bionic -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to network-manager in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1735002 Title: Allow configuring Wi-Fi MAC Randomization feature from GUI Status in gnome-control-center: Unknown Status in NetworkManager: Unknown Status in gnome-control-center package in Ubuntu: Triaged Status in network-manager package in Ubuntu: Triaged Bug description: Recent versions of NetworkManager have a feature enabled by default to use a random MAC address when scanning for available Wi-Fi networks for privacy. My understanding is that the spoofed MAC address is not used when actually connecting to a network. This feature was disabled in Ubuntu 17.10 because it broke scanning with some Wi-Fi drivers. My understanding is that there is a bug in some drivers when attempting to change the MAC address. See LP: #1681513. The bug might not be as big of an issue with the latest version of NetworkManager because 1) There are helpful commits like this (it was not backported to 17.04): https://cgit.freedesktop.org/NetworkManager/NetworkManager/commit/?id=46d53e1 2) It is also possible now to selectively disable Wi-Fi MAC Randomization for specific drivers. https://cgit.freedesktop.org/NetworkManager/NetworkManager/commit/?id=b869d9 However, I'm really hesitant to re-enable this feature as long as A) we don't know for sure which drivers are affected, B) and more importantly, there is no GUI way to turn the feature on or off. Asking users to edit config files isn't very nice. The MAC Address Randomization feature is really nice (Windows 10 has a similar feature) but I think we need a GUI on/off switch in Settings > Wi-Fi or Settings > Privacy. To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-control-center/+bug/1735002/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages Post to : touch-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
