Change MAC address macOS 12 Monterey

change-mac-address-sequoia.md

Change MAC address in macOS Sequoia

I was unable to change the MAC address of the Wi-FI device on a MacBook Air (M1 2020) running macOS Sequoia due to the following error: ifconfig: ioctl (SIOCAIFADDR): Can't assign requested addres.

By running the commands in following sequence I was able to change it successfully:

1. Turn WiFi device off
2. Turn the WiFi device on again: networksetup -setairportpower en0 on
3. Change the MAC: ifconfig en0 ether <mac-address-here>
4. Run: networksetup -detectnewhardware

I have tried with 3 different cards which I can change mac under Linux, and they are not working under Macos so problem is in Mac. Probably they have enabled only WiFi spoofing.

one thunderbolt doc, usb ethernet from dell and old TB2 mac ethernet all work under linux and I can change MACs

@phush0 try https://gist.github.com/mbierman/03b2a962ac04963ef5bbc8354d0ed5d1

Sorry for late replay but it is not working even with latest script variant. Also strange enough is that it says that interface is Wi-Fi in self detect. But result is same ifconfig: ioctl (SIOCAIFADDR): Can't assign requested address

edit: tested on the Macpro Wi-Fi script is working for it, but it is not working for ethernet at all

@phush0 if you are referring to the script I posted, let's move the discussion there. If not, please ignore. :)

config: ioctl (SIOCAIFADDR): permission denied what does this mean?

If you change en0 to en1 I noticed it bypasses things such as Internet parental controls. But if you use en0 it doesn't work. Is this because en0 is the ethernet Mac address and en1 is the WIFI MAC address?

I found that ifconfig: ioctl (SIOCAIFADDR): Can't assign requested address because that my MacBook still connect to wifi. Just disconnect and run sudo ifconfig en0 ether <mac-address-here>, no error exist.

Following has been tested working on M4 macbook with macOS sequoia:

First, disassociate from the wifi AP you were connected to.

Run ifconfig to change the MAC:

sudo ifconfig en0 ether <your-desired-mac>

the command should run w/o error.

You can now see the newly set MAC address in:

sudo ifconfig | less # search en0 to quickly locate the interface 

Typically, the WiFi interface is en0. If not, you can get the correct interface when connected to an AP, during which ifconfig shows ip address that the desired interface is using, which is typically prefixed with 192.... With this, you can find the interface accordingly.

this gives me the same permission denied error as stated earlier in the thread...

this gives me the same permission denied error as stated earlier in the thread...

@limitay Considering you didn't use quote, are you trying my approach? If yes, do you have the WiFI switch disabled? The switch shouldn't be disabled, simply disassociate the AP you were connected to.