MAC address of remote PC

nickraj · 01-26-2007, 01:51 PM

HOW do i get MAC address of remote computer.

acid_kewpie · 01-26-2007, 01:53 PM

There are many ways to do this.. you need to give a lot more details about what kind of access you have to that machine etc... if you have no access to it, you can not get it's mac as it serves no purpose outside of the local network, so would not be included in any data as a side effet or anything.

nickraj · 01-26-2007, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by acid_kewpie

There are many ways to do this.. you need to give a lot more details about what kind of access you have to that machine etc... if you have no access to it, you can not get it's mac as it serves no purpose outside of the local network, so would not be included in any data as a side effet or anything.

I mean remote computer on the same LAN .... .... and can you aslo tell how to get the MAC of a Linux box from a Windows box .... I am able to get the IP by pinging the linux box .. but then using arp -a <IP> i cant get mac because there is a router connection the two networks... and i get the mac of the router

acid_kewpie · 01-26-2007, 02:35 PM

right well as above, you can't. not outright... you have no reason to need it, so no standard protocol exists to do this. log into the box, run ifconfig, and grep the mac address out of it.

nickraj · 01-26-2007, 03:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by acid_kewpie

right well as above, you can't. not outright... you have no reason to need it, so no standard protocol exists to do this. log into the box, run ifconfig, and grep the mac address out of it.

Isn't it possible to accces the table of the router so that I can get the mac for a perticular ip . Or there is no way

chort · 01-26-2007, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nickraj

Isn't it possible to accces the table of the router so that I can get the mac for a perticular ip . Or there is no way

Not unless you have access to the router. MAC addresses are layer2 addresses and only useful between machines that are physically connected. When an ethernet frame is forwarded to the next device in the route, the MAC address of the sender is removed and replaced with the MAC address of the router that forwards the packet to the next router or device. You can only see MAC addresses of machines in your own subnet (and then only if it's not forwarded by a bridge or other devices that proxies ARP).

nickraj · 01-27-2007, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chort

Not unless you have access to the router. MAC addresses are layer2 addresses and only useful between machines that are physically connected. When an ethernet frame is forwarded to the next device in the route, the MAC address of the sender is removed and replaced with the MAC address of the router that forwards the packet to the next router or device. You can only see MAC addresses of machines in your own subnet (and then only if it's not forwarded by a bridge or other devices that proxies ARP).

Thanks , but i am still curious to find any method to do that.....the subnet is connected to a router , and that is connected to another subnet ...router knows the mac of receiver??then why cant we get mac ???there must be some way ...

bulliver · 01-27-2007, 12:27 PM

nmap will tell you the remote MAC address:

Code:

# nmap -v 192.168.0.100

Starting Nmap 4.20 ( http://insecure.org ) at 2007-01-27 11:25 MST
Initiating ARP Ping Scan at 11:25
Scanning 192.168.0.100 [1 port]
Completed ARP Ping Scan at 11:25, 0.00s elapsed (1 total hosts)
Initiating SYN Stealth Scan at 11:25
   [...snip...]
MAC Address: 00:0E:0C:22:12:47 (Intel)

Nmap finished: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.727 seconds
               Raw packets sent: 1698 (74.710KB) | Rcvd: 1698 (78.104KB)

This may only work in your own subnet as chort mentioned...

acid_kewpie · 01-27-2007, 01:03 PM

well it's not a "may" for all the reasons myself and chort gave above...

bulliver · 01-27-2007, 01:06 PM

Quote:

well it's not a "may" for all the reasons myself and chort gave above...

noted...

acid_kewpie · 01-27-2007, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bulliver

noted...

i just said it like that as for once chort didn't prove i was wrong!

maybbach · 01-27-2007, 09:25 PM

if ur on the same subnet the easiest way is to ping the ip address of the device then check the arp table. check man arp cuz im not sure what they exact switch is.

edit: oops, didn't realize there was a router in between the 2 nodes. when the packet is routed, the mac address is dropped since it's layer 2. unless u have access to the router and its arp table, ur SOL

placemevinod · 01-28-2007, 12:41 AM

s u can also try this out

get in to the ssh mode of the remote mechine if u know the ip address of the same.
then get in to the machine using ssh and get the ifconfig

wildar · 01-28-2007, 12:53 AM

You could try calling the person that uses the remote system you are interested in, to look up the MAC address for you. I know this isn't very high tech, but if it works it works,