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Privacy: MAC Randomization

Starting in Android 8.0, Android devices use random MAC addresses when probing for new networks while not currently associated to a network.

In Android {{ androidPVersionNumber }}, a developer option can be enabled (it is disabled by default) to cause the device to use a randomized MAC address when connecting to a Wi-Fi network. A different randomized MAC address is used per SSID.

MAC randomization prevents listeners from using MAC addresses to build a history of device activity, thus increasing user privacy.

Additionally, MAC addresses are randomized as part of Wi-Fi Aware and Wi-Fi RTT operations.

Implementation

To implement MAC randomization on your device:

  1. Work with a Wi-Fi chip vendor to implement the IWifiStaIface.setMacAddress() HAL method.

    • The AOSP reference implementation brings the interface down, changes the MAC address, and brings the interface back up. This reference implementation behavior may not work with certain chip vendors.

  2. Set config_wifi_support_connected_mac_randomization{: .external} to true in the Settings config.xml (this can be done in a device custom overlay).

    • This flag is used to control whether the Connected MAC Randomization toggle is shown in the developer option of the reference Settings implementation. If true, the toggle is shown; if false, the toggle is not shown.

  3. Test your implementation using the methods described in Validation.

The System UI must:

  • Have a setting in the developer menu to enable or disable the feature.
  • Show the random MAC address generated by the system when displaying the Wi-Fi interface MAC address if the MAC randomization feature is enabled.

Use the reference implementation{: .external} of Settings UI to implement new prompts.

Validation

To validate that the feature is working as intended, run both an integration test (ACTS) and a manual test.

To run an integration test, use the ACTS file, WifiConnectedMacRandomizationTest.py, located in tools/test/connectivity/acts/tests/google/wifi, to verify if the device uses the randomized MAC address and correctly stores the randomized MAC address for each network.

To run a manual test:

  1. Turn on the feature and verify that the device is able to connect to Wi-Fi networks.
  2. Verify that the MAC address displayed in Wi-Fi settings matches the one that the device is using (from ifconfig).
  3. Verify that the device is using a randomized MAC address (not a factory MAC) by doing packet captures.
  4. Verify that the device stores network-based randomized MAC addresses by checking that it uses the same MAC address whenever connecting to the same network.
  5. Verify that forgetting a network and re-associating to the same SSID generates a new random MAC address.

You may experience up to a three-second delay when connecting to networks since scan results are cleared whenever a new MAC address is set. Other delays may also occur when connecting to networks and validating internet connectivity.

If the Wi-Fi driver or firmware does not properly synchronize the MAC address state with the host kernel, internet connectivity checks will fail. If this happens, check with your silicon partners to ensure that the driver or firmware has been correctly updated with the new MAC address.