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I have a DTEK60 and today I find its MAC address have changed a few times in the last week or so. I am on Sep security patch level.
It doesn't really change on every reboot, but it did change at least twice in the last week. I wonder if it's a security feature or it is a bug in Aug or Sep security patch.
Does it happen on your DTEK60, too?
Thank you.
IP addresses are assigned by routers and can easily change, but MAC addresses are hardware based and don't change.
While all network interfaces HAVE a "from the factory" hardware MAC address it is trivially changed by the software in virtually every case. It normally does not, but with very few exceptions the OS can write the register that holds it after the interface powers up.
I know that MAC addresses can be spoofed, by why would it be happening in this case?
I don't know... and going back through my logs, it looks like my phone did it a few times too in the middle of October...
I did some checking and found out this is a fairly common practice now in operating systems.
In Windows 10, one of the WiFi settings is an option to disable Random Hardware Addresses.
Microsoft says it is used to make location tracking by WiFi networks harder.
I haven't found how to turn it off on a Android device though, and unless you have a good reason too, it's probably not a good idea.