Fedora 40 Looks To Utilize WiFi MAC Address Randomization For Better Privacy

Among the newly-proposed features for Fedora 40 is enabling WiFi MAC address randomization by default to yield better user privacy.

Pending approval by the Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee (FESCo), Fedora Linux 40 is looking to employ "stable-ssid" for default MAC address randomization for WiFi network connections managed by NetworkManager.

NetworkManager with the "stable-ssid" setting is able to provide MAC address randomization. The "stable-ssid" mode of operation will generate a stable MAC address based off the network's SSID and seeded as well by the per-host key from /etc/machine-id and /var/lib/NetworkManager/secret_key and a per-interface network identifier.

The hope with this change is to further enhance user privacy with some network operators and advertisers tracking MAC addresses to collect information on user movements and device usage patterns.

More details on this proposed change for Fedora 40 via the Fedora Wiki. Fedora 40 is aiming to release by the end of April.