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German police ask for help in identifying a bomber's MAC address

zdnet.com

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Re: German police ask for help in identifying a bomber's MAC address

#11

Post by zaarn »

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #7
burtonator wrote: post #2

I wonder if there are any unintended consequences for this. For example, if you were able to identify the MAC address, and you were unethical, you could just blackmail the "bomber" - whether they are innocent or not. Also, some devices allow you to reprogram the MAC address so you could in theory use this to blackmail someone as well, or at least get them harassed by the police.

> Also, some devices allow you to reprogram the MAC address I might be mistaken, but don’t changed MAC addresses (at least using macchanger) persist only until the next reboot?

I doubt it would stand up as good evidence in court, though it would help in finding at least some suspects.

Re: German police ask for help in identifying a bomber's MAC address

#12

Post by renholder »

burtonator wrote: post #2

I wonder if there are any unintended consequences for this. For example, if you were able to identify the MAC address, and you were unethical, you could just blackmail the "bomber" - whether they are innocent or not. Also, some devices allow you to reprogram the MAC address so you could in theory use this to blackmail someone as well, or at least get them harassed by the police.

>For example, if you were able to identify the MAC address, and you were unethical, you could just blackmail the "bomber" - whether they are innocent or not.

Didn't something along the lines of this happen with this with the Boston bombing and /r/, where they named the wrong - and innocent - person?

>Also, some devices allow you to reprogram the MAC address so you could in theory use this to blackmail someone as well, or at least get them harassed by the police.

According to IEEE[1], that MAC belongs to a Morotola Mobility, LLC. (a Lenovo Company) device. If anyone had a device in the F8E079 family, they would be - rightfully - shitting bricks, right now, for being correlated with it.

So, to summarise: No, I don't think anything good (initially) will come of this.

Also, it's a family included in macchanger, so that makes it ever-more probable that the mac address has - at some point - been used by someone else.

macchanger -l | grep "f8:e0:79"

18898 - f8:e0:79 - Motorola Mobility LLC

[1] - https://regauth.standards.ieee.org/standards-ra-web/pub/view...

Re: German police ask for help in identifying a bomber's MAC address

#13

Post by f- »

burtonator wrote: post #2

I wonder if there are any unintended consequences for this. For example, if you were able to identify the MAC address, and you were unethical, you could just blackmail the "bomber" - whether they are innocent or not. Also, some devices allow you to reprogram the MAC address so you could in theory use this to blackmail someone as well, or at least get them harassed by the police.

I'm no expert, but "blackmailing a bomber" does not sound like a particularly solid business plan...

Re: German police ask for help in identifying a bomber's MAC address

#14

Post by darkpuma »

kencausey wrote: post #4
burtonator wrote: post #2

I wonder if there are any unintended consequences for this. For example, if you were able to identify the MAC address, and you were unethical, you could just blackmail the "bomber" - whether they are innocent or not. Also, some devices allow you to reprogram the MAC address so you could in theory use this to blackmail someone as well, or at least get them harassed by the police.

Yes, I think the fact that MAC addresses are often changeable, sometimes quite easily, is going to be an issue if this evidence is ever used in court.

Probably not. By the time it gets to a courtroom they'll almost certainly have a lot more than just MAC addresses, so while the bomber might plead "some jackass spoofed my MAC address to frame me", that wouldn't explain his purchase history, the explosives residue around his home and clothing, etc.

A MAC address doesn't prove anything, but courtrooms aren't about proof. They're evidence, not proof, and enough evidence is all the German prosecution should need to have a relatively easy time in court.

Re: German police ask for help in identifying a bomber's MAC address

#15

Post by jakejarvis »

darkpuma wrote: post #14
kencausey wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I think the fact that MAC addresses are often changeable, sometimes quite easily, is going to be an issue if this evidence is ever used in court.

Probably not. By the time it gets to a courtroom they'll almost certainly have a lot more than just MAC addresses, so while the bomber might plead "some jackass spoofed my MAC address to frame me" , that wouldn't explain his purchase history, the explosives residue around his home and clothing, etc. A MAC address doesn't prove anything, but courtrooms aren't about proof . They're evidence, not proof, and enough evide…

I'm certainly no legal expert, but wouldn't the whole "fruit of the poisonous tree" argument apply to any evidence found after and/or as a result of the MAC address connection?

Re: German police ask for help in identifying a bomber's MAC address

#16

Post by llukas »

jakejarvis wrote: post #15
darkpuma wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably not. By the time it gets to a courtroom they'll almost certainly have a lot more than just MAC addresses, so while the bomber might plead "some jackass spoofed my MAC address to frame me" , that wouldn't explain his purchase history, the explosives residue around his home and clothing, etc. A MAC address doesn't prove anything, but courtrooms aren't about proof . They're evidence, not proof, and enough evide…

I'm certainly no legal expert, but wouldn't the whole "fruit of the poisonous tree" argument apply to any evidence found after and/or as a result of the MAC address connection?

There is no such thing outside common law. ie most of Europe.

Re: German police ask for help in identifying a bomber's MAC address

#17

Post by netsharc »

They probably can ask a lot of free WiFi providers for this info, and these providers may have his phone number as well (I'll explain below). And to get a SIM card they would've needed to register with their ID, so the authorities could identify the bomber that way (assuming it wasn't a SIM that someone bought with their ID and sold to someone else, etc).

Some cafe chains or even national train networks offer free WiFi, but they ask you to register with your phone number and SMS verification, I've done this too but only now do I realize this means they can track my phone as it travels between train stations/cafe locations and automatically connect to their WiFi...

Re: German police ask for help in identifying a bomber's MAC address

#18

Post by [deleted] »

f- wrote: post #13
burtonator wrote: post #2

I wonder if there are any unintended consequences for this. For example, if you were able to identify the MAC address, and you were unethical, you could just blackmail the "bomber" - whether they are innocent or not. Also, some devices allow you to reprogram the MAC address so you could in theory use this to blackmail someone as well, or at least get them harassed by the police.

I'm no expert, but "blackmailing a bomber" does not sound like a particularly solid business plan...

[deleted]

Re: German police ask for help in identifying a bomber's MAC address

#19

Post by toufiqbarhamov »

f- wrote: post #13
burtonator wrote: post #2

I wonder if there are any unintended consequences for this. For example, if you were able to identify the MAC address, and you were unethical, you could just blackmail the "bomber" - whether they are innocent or not. Also, some devices allow you to reprogram the MAC address so you could in theory use this to blackmail someone as well, or at least get them harassed by the police.

I'm no expert, but "blackmailing a bomber" does not sound like a particularly solid business plan...

It has to be up there with some of the all-time bad notions. Personally my mind immediately went to that scene in The Dark Knight...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AUfv32dmVFw

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