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Date:      Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:05:34 -0700
From:      Adarsh Joshi <adarsh.joshi@qlogic.com>
To:        Chuck Swiger <cswiger@mac.com>
Cc:        "freebsd-net@freebsd.org" <freebsd-net@freebsd.org>
Subject:   RE: Zero MAC address
Message-ID:  <5E4F49720D0BAD499EE1F01232234BA87438162FAE@AVEXMB1.qlogic.org>
In-Reply-To: <1AB6F524-B4F4-4718-96C5-DB2951A02D59@mac.com>
References:  <5E4F49720D0BAD499EE1F01232234BA87438162F95@AVEXMB1.qlogic.org> <1AB6F524-B4F4-4718-96C5-DB2951A02D59@mac.com>

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Thank you for the quick replies.

I am aware of the importance of the second bit. By invalid, I was wondering=
 if that particular address is reserved or if it has any special meaning or=
 purpose.

So in theory, I cannot classify it as an invalid MAC address on my packet s=
tatistics utility.

On a side thought, can an incoming packet be classified as "invalid MAC add=
ress" if it has the same MAC address of the host?

Thanks again
Adarsh


-----Original Message-----
From: Chuck Swiger [mailto:cswiger@mac.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2012 3:57 PM
To: Adarsh Joshi
Cc: freebsd-net@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Zero MAC address

On Mar 14, 2012, at 3:32 PM, Adarsh Joshi wrote:
> I assigned a 00:00:00:00:00:00 MAC address to one of my interfaces on a m=
achine and tried to ping the peer machine. The ping did go through fine.
>
> I can the see the request and reply packets on the packet capture. I am w=
ondering if that is legitimate and if not, who is supposed to check that. I=
 mean, the stack or the driver on the sending machine or the receiving mach=
ine.
>
> Basically, I am trying to test a statistics utility which keeps track of =
packets with invalid MAC addresses.  Are the packets with zero MAC addresse=
s be classified as invalid?

In theory, no-- 00:00:00 OUI belongs to Xerox, and there is nothing special=
 about an all-zeros MAC.

If you see an OUI with the second bit of the first octet set, that would in=
dicate locally managed addresses rather than global or "universally adminis=
tered" numbering, otherwise you can lookup against OUI data from the IEEE:

  http://standards.ieee.org/develop/regauth/oui/oui.txt

...and that will let you identify the vendor of the ethernet NIC, SAS/fibre=
 channel controller, etc...or conclude that someone is likely spoofing MAC =
addresses if you don't find the OUI listed.

Maybe that's what you mean by "invalid"?

Regards,
--
-Chuck



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