However, upon upgrade to iOS 14, all existing wireless profiles will be updated to use random MAC addresses. Prior to iOS 14, the device uses a real MAC address for wireless access. This also impacts the single-SSID BYOD flow for devices that have been onboarded while running a previous version of iOS. This causes a policy mismatch when using the precreated ISE BYOD Employee_EAP-TLS authorization rule. However, when the dual-SSID BYOD flow is used, different MAC addresses will be generated for the onboarding SSID and the secured SSID. This is true even when the wireless profile is deleted and recreated.
Windows 10 has had it for a while, too.Įven though the Android 10 and iOS 14 devices are set up to use randomized MAC addresses, when a wireless profile is created on the device the MAC address is always generated with the same random MAC address for the given wireless profile. Android 10 added MAC address randomization for all network activities in 2019 iOS 14 added it this week. This probing technique appeared in version 8 of both iOS and Android, in 20 respectively. The tech world wised up to this, and started to program devices to periodically randomize their MAC addresses when probing so that the handhelds stopped leaving such easy-to-follow breadcrumb trails. Those probes, and human-initiated connections, are often made without regard for the fact that it’s possible to track a device through space by following its MAC address from network to network. MAC addresses were developed in more innocent times before we all started carrying networked devices around with us, and that they promiscuously probe Wi-Fi hotspots and Bluetooth gizmos prior to initiating connections. Cisco promotes its Identity Services Engine (ISE) as “intuitive network security for the digital age.” But Switchzilla has just explained that it’s not very good at handling the growing practice of MAC address randomization by mobile devices.Ī refresher: MAC addresses are unique identifiers assigned to network interface controllers, and are disclosed when devices communicate with each other on a network.