RoMA: rotating MAC address for privacy protection

Abstract

MAC addresses can be collected by passive observers to track Wi-Fi users. While address randomization neutralizes this threat for devices not yet associated, the problem remains for devices being associated with a WLAN. In this paper, we introduce RoMA, which is an anti-tracking scheme making use of concurrent virtual network interfaces (VIFs). We provide a proof-of-concept implementation of RoMA and show that it has a limited impact on the performance of the devices.