[Dnsmasq-discuss] Switching from ISC dhcpd and IPv6 DNS

Bill C Riemers briemers at redhat.com
Thu Apr 21 21:29:28 BST 2011


On 04/21/2011 04:13 PM, /dev/rob0 wrote:
> I don't understand. A MAC address is only relevant in a physical
> network segment. You simply *must* give a MAC address to hosts on
> your segment in order to have networking. But beyond that segment,
> there's no meaning to a MAC.
>
> Sure, someone can look it up and find out what kind of NIC or
> embedded device you bought. But no, I don't see a "serious privacy
> concern" here. Am I missing something, or are you?

The privacy issue is just that.   You don't want some stranger being able to look an network traffic, and determine what type of computers you own.  You also don't want them to realize that the MAC address you normally use at home, is now connecting from Star Bucks, so it is a good time to go rob your house of all those other nice computers...

Really, it is understandable when you think about it.   Really the big problem is we tend to have things reversed.   Intranets should use non-routable IPv4 addresses which remain fixed.   Addresses used on the internet should be either randomized IPv6 addresses (if we aren't running services) or fixed IPv6 addresses for hosting services.   If everyone did it that way there would be no privacy issues.   But it means then, everything would have to remain dual stacked...

Bill




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