MAC Spoofing / Cloning for WiFi is broken in Trusty 14.04 / 14.10 and all others including Mint 17

[diegogmx]

**SHORT OVERVIEW**

"Cloned MAC Address" feature doesn't work with any USB WiFi adapters
in 14.04, 14.10, Mint 17 and likely all others based on Ubuntu.

It worked under 13.10 and was broken from day one in 14.04+.
This is not an upgrade issue, i did a clean install to test.
Atheros, Realtek, Ralink adapters tested, this has nothing to do with the driver type.

The only symptoms are WiFi not connecting and the following dmesg output:

[ 214.296350] wlan0: authenticate with 98:fc:11:f2:f7:43
[ 214.305098] wlan0: send auth to 98:fc:11:f2:f7:43 (try 1/3)
[ 214.307421] wlan0: authenticated
[ 219.367559] wlan0: deauthenticating from 98:fc:11:f2:f7:43 by local choice (reason=3)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
**TEMP SOLUTION***

This bug is caused by wpasupplicant (2.1-0ubuntu1.1) in Trusty, network-manager is not the culprit.

I quick fix is to downgrade wpasupplicant to the Saucy version, wpasupplicant (1.0-3ubuntu2). This is relatively easy and doesn't seem to affect anything else.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Original bug report info:

after setting the mac to change in networkmanager i try to connect yet it never will, when looking at the logs it says it got disconnected by local choice (reason 3), it appeared it was because the mac wasnt effectively changed but then again i tried to do so disabling network-manager -> macchanger -m -> enabling network-manager, i checked with ifconfig if the mac has changed and it did however the result was the same
maybe its because of this http://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-security/cve/2013/CVE-2013-4579.html?

**UPDATE**

now works doing the macchanger procedure, directly from network-manager it doesnt

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: ubuntu-release-upgrader-core 1:0.220.2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-24.47-generic 3.13.9
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-24-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.1
Architecture: amd64
CrashDB: ubuntu
CurrentDesktop: KDE
Date: Mon May 19 02:00:41 2014
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-05-06 (12 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140416.1)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: ubuntu-release-upgrader
Symptom: release-upgrade
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
---
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: KDE
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-05-06 (13 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140416.1)
MachineType: Hewlett-Packard HP Pavilion g7 Notebook PC
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
Package: linux (not installed)
ProcFB: 0 VESA VGA
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic root=UUID=b249fe00-d117-42dc-a2a4-e2b8763b5b7c ro rootflags=subvol=@ quiet splash vt.handoff=7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-24.47-generic 3.13.9
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.13.0-24-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.13.0-24-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.127.2
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
Tags: trusty
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-24-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm cdrom dip lpadmin plugdev sambashare sudo
_MarkForUpload: True
dmi.bios.date: 10/24/2012
dmi.bios.vendor: Insyde
dmi.bios.version: F.53
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: 3568
dmi.board.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.board.version: 21.3A
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnInsyde:bvrF.53:bd10/24/2012:svnHewlett-Packard:pnHPPaviliong7NotebookPC:pvr0690130000204610000620100:rvnHewlett-Packard:rn3568:rvr21.3A:cvnHewlett-Packard:ct10:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: HP Pavilion g7 Notebook PC
dmi.product.version: 0690130000204610000620100
dmi.sys.vendor: Hewlett-Packard

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. From a terminal window please run:

apport-collect 1320752

and then change the status of the bug to 'Confirmed'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

[diegogmx (diegogmx2000)]

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[peterthevicar (peterthevicar)]

This affects me too. NetworkManager with ath5k module. Work around (disable WiFi, use macchanger to spoof mac, re-enable WiFi) works. Was OK with Ubuntu 13.10.

[ketici (ketici)]

This bug persists in 14.10 and affects all Ubuntu based distributions
As far as i can tell it the "Cloned MAC address" feature is just broken, the type of WiFi adapter or any other settings are irrelevant.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2221802

The bug has been around for 7 months, it has me looking into switching to a different distro at this point.

How do we get it fixed?

[ketici (ketici)]

mint 17 discussion, same issue http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=157&t=179147

[Kirils Solovjovs (linux-kirils)]

Just discovered I also have this bug. Was diagnosing this problem for a month since updating my OS, but never isolated the problem to mac-address spoofing.

I tried downgrading to network manager 0.9.4.0 and associated packages (nm-util, nm-gtk, nm-glib), but that didn't help at all.

The manual workournd does not cut it.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Why (recibe-distraction)]

+1
How is this "medium" importance? This is a critical bug.

[GigabyteProductions (psppsn96)]

That's probably because there's a workaround for it.

[James Lewis (james-fsck)]

Just encountered this on a Lenovo laptop with the built in Intel WiFi, before I found this bug I discovered that if you bring the interface down change the mac address and bring it back up again before network manager starts, and then restart network manager some time after the user logs in, it will connect successfully... not sure why.

[toozler (toozler)]

Bug persists on elementaryOS freya beta1 (ubuntu based) on an acer c720 chromebook. Workaround is to execute the following script:
#!/bin/sh
sudo service network-manager stop
sudo ifconfig wlan0 down
sudo macchanger -a wlan0
sudo ifconfig wlan0 up
sudo service network-manager start

[dtbaker (dtbaker)]

Also just encounted this bug. Confirmed workaround:

sudo service network-manager stop
sudo ifconfig wlan0 down
sudo macchanger -a wlan0
sudo ifconfig wlan0 up
sudo service network-manager start

[Guest (disposable-s)]

In my optionion this is not a medium bug, but a really serious one!
I acknowledge there is a workaround, but that means one has to know there is actually a bug.

Most people will spend lots of time debugging their wifi client and ap because the error just states:
'wlan0: deauthenticating from 98:fc:11:f2:f7:43 by local choice (reason=3)'

This error message is of a such generic type, I wonder why it doesn't just say: 'An error occurred'.

If one looks up the error code, he/she is even distracted furthermore:
reason 3 = 'Deauthenticated because sending STA is leaving (or has left) IBSS or ESS'

Because all the symptons point to the direction of a generic error with the ap or wifi connection,
I propose to change the importance to 'serious'

[Angel-inn (christian-bizet)]

Hi
I am 100% agree with the post 29.
this would be a minimum to pass the status to "Serious"!

[Jim Omma (jimomma)]

I too have the same problem.

CLONE MAC ADDRESS in Ubuntu does not work. I'm using Kubuntu 15.04.

This bug popped up in Debian at the same time it hit Ubuntu over a year ago but Debian had it fixed in a couple of weeks.

FIX THIS.

On Kubuntu because PLASMA ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!

Not to mention you can still use Upstart instead of systemd-ENESSAY

Get OFF YOUR LAZY ASSES AND FIX THIS SHIT OR GO BACK TO WORK AT MS!

[Michael Daly (michael-daly-uone)]

I tried this with Xubuntu 16.04 and the problem is still there.

[sean d'epagnier (seandepagnier)]

It's still broken in ubuntu 16.04.

The problem is not wpa_supplicant. I removed network manager and made my own wpa_supplicant.conf and manually changed the mac with ifconfig, ran wpa_supplicant then dhclient and it is working.

[GigabyteProductions (psppsn96)]

Removing NetworkManager is not necessary. However, I still think the bug is NetworkManager. The MAC address cannot be changed while the interface is up. The MAC address can be manually changed while NetworkManager is running by disabling wireless in NetworkManager, and using a command like the following to change the MAC address, before bringing wireless back up and connecting:

ip link set dev "${interface}" address "${macaddr}"

I'm not sure if the kernel previously allowed MAC addresses to change while the interface was up, or if NetworkManager previously brought interfaces down, but either way, I think it's NetworkManager's responsibility to bring the interface down before attempting a change in the MAC address.

The reason seandepagnier's removal of NetworkManager works is because the interfaces are down by default when a daemon like NetworkManager is not active, so the MAC address changed with no problem.

[Andy (a-ribka)]

I fixed the issue by adding the following lines to /etc/rc.local:

sudo service network-manager stop &&
sudo ifconfig wlp2s0 down &&
sudo macchanger -e wlp2s0 &&
sudo ifconfig wlp2s0 up &&
sudo service network-manager start

Now my MAC address is getting changed every time I restart.