Bypass WiFi Time Limits on Your Mac: One Command to Reset Your MAC Address

#security #tutorial #cli #networking

Imagine you're traveling and find an awesome coffee shop with a great atmosphere to get some work done. It's the perfect spot.

You settle in, but after two hours or so, everything suddenly stops loading. It turns out the WiFi has a two-hour limit and has kicked you offline.

You try to log in again, but as you might guess, it doesn't work.

You switch to your phone's hotspot, but the signal drops to EDGE. Great.

Not wanting to leave, you might decide to look for a workaround.

DISCLAIMER: You are solely responsible for ensuring your actions comply with all applicable laws and policies. This information is for educational purposes only.

The Quick Solution: Change Your MAC Address

This reddit article shows that it's possible to get it working perfectly.

In a nutshell, the core issue is that the Wi-Fi provider recognises your device by remembering its MAC address, which is a unique identifier for your Wi-Fi device. So why not just change it?

Here is how to do it.

Please note that this works on macOS Sequoia 15.1 with an Apple Silicon chip. There might be slight differences for other models or OS versions.

Change your MAC address with just one command

If you just want to make a change without going into too much detail, try this command.


curl -sL https://gist.githubusercontent.com/raw/7b9be75a427c2e22f80362ef619a7ecd -o /tmp/mac.sh && bash /tmp/mac.sh

Now let's try to understand what this script actually does.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Get the name of your WiFi adapter

On a Mac, this is usually en0. Run the following command to find yours:

networksetup -listallhardwareports | awk '/Wi-Fi/{getline; print $2}' | xargs ifconfig

You should see a result similar to this:

2. Turn off WiFi

Turn off the WiFi directly from the menu bar.

3. Reset the adapter

Wait about 30 seconds. Then, turn the WiFi back on using this command:

networksetup -setairportpower en0 on

4. Generate a new MAC address

Generate a random MAC address using the command below. Alternatively, you can just manually change the last digit of your current address.

 openssl rand -hex 6 | sed 's/\(..\)/\1:/g; s/.$//'

5. Apply the change

Use the following command to assign the new MAC address:

sudo ifconfig en0 ether << NEW MAC HERE >>

Note: If the change does not work, try logging out or restarting your Mac. However, in testing, it worked immediately.

6. Confirm the change

Check that the address has been updated by running:

ifconfig en0

Put it all together and save it as mac-hanger.sh or so.

#!/bin/bash

MAC_BACKUP_FILE="$HOME/.mac_address_backup"

# Detect WiFi interface
echo "Running: networksetup -listallhardwareports | awk '/Wi-Fi/{getline; print \$2}'"
INTERFACE=$(networksetup -listallhardwareports | awk '/Wi-Fi/{getline; print $2}')

if [[ -z "$INTERFACE" ]]; then
    echo "Error: Could not detect WiFi interface"
    exit 1
fi

echo "Detected WiFi interface: $INTERFACE"

get_current_mac() {
    ifconfig "$INTERFACE" | awk '/ether/{print $2}'
}

save_mac() {
    local mac="$1"
    echo "$mac" > "$MAC_BACKUP_FILE"
    echo "Saved MAC to $MAC_BACKUP_FILE"
}

generate_random_mac() {
    local first_char=$(openssl rand -hex 1 | cut -c1)
    local rest=$(openssl rand -hex 5 | sed 's/\(..\)/\1:/g; s/.$//')
    echo "${first_char}2:$rest"
}

apply_mac() {
    local new_mac="$1"

    echo ""
    echo "=========================================="
    echo "  Please turn OFF WiFi from the menu bar"
    echo "=========================================="
    echo ""
    read -p "Press ENTER when WiFi is turned off..."

    echo "Waiting 30 seconds..."
    sleep 30

    echo ""
    echo "Running: networksetup -setairportpower $INTERFACE on"
    networksetup -setairportpower "$INTERFACE" on

    echo ""
    echo "Running: sudo ifconfig $INTERFACE lladdr $new_mac"
    sudo ifconfig "$INTERFACE" lladdr "$new_mac"

    echo ""
    echo "Running: ifconfig $INTERFACE | awk '/ether/{print \$2}'"
    echo "Current MAC is now: $(get_current_mac)"

    echo ""
    echo "=========================================="
    echo "  NOTE: If it didn't work, restart your"
    echo "  Mac and run this script again."
    echo "=========================================="
}

echo ""
echo "Running: ifconfig $INTERFACE | awk '/ether/{print \$2}'"
current_mac=$(get_current_mac)

echo ""
echo "=========================================="
echo "  Current MAC address: $current_mac"
echo "=========================================="
echo ""
echo "1) Generate new random MAC"
echo "2) Restore previous MAC"
echo ""
read -p "Choose [1/2]: " choice

case "$choice" in
    1)
        save_mac "$current_mac"
        echo ""
        echo "Running: openssl rand -hex 6 | sed 's/\(..\)/\1:/g; s/.\$//'"
        new_mac=$(generate_random_mac)
        echo "Generated MAC: $new_mac"
        apply_mac "$new_mac"
        ;;
    2)
        if [[ -f "$MAC_BACKUP_FILE" ]]; then
            old_mac=$(cat "$MAC_BACKUP_FILE")
            echo "Restoring MAC: $old_mac"
        else
            echo "No backup found."
            read -p "Enter MAC address to restore (format xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx): " old_mac
            if [[ -z "$old_mac" ]]; then
                echo "No MAC address entered. Exiting."
                exit 1
            fi
        fi
        apply_mac "$old_mac"
        ;;
    *)
        echo "Invalid choice"
        exit 1
        ;;
esac

Important: If you need to change it again, make sure to start from the beginning (turning off WiFi from the menu, etc.). Changing the MAC address multiple times without the reset step usually fails and results in an error like "Can't assign requested address."