Get MAC address in python
MAC address stands for Media Access Control address and it is a unique id assigned to hardware components typically to network devices.
These components are called Network Interface Controllers(NIC).
A MAC address is assigned by the manufacturer and cannot be modified. It is also called Ethernet hardware address, hardware address or physical address.
In this article, we will take a look at 2 different ways to determine MAC address in python.
Method 1 : uuid module
Python uuid module has a getnode() method which returns mac address of a hardware.
Remember that a computer has many NIC or network hardwares, so each machine may have many different MAC addresses.
getnode() returns an address of only one of these hardware as a 48 bit integer. Example,
import uuid mac = uuid.getnode() print(mac)
To format it as a hexadecimal value, use hex() function as shown below
import uuid mac = uuid.getnode() print(hex(mac))
If you want a properly formatted address as visible in terminal or command prompt, as a 12 digit value separated into blocks of 2 digits each and separated by a colon(:), use below code
import uuid import re print (':'.join(re.findall('..', '%012x' % mac))) To understand the above code, break it into parts as below
import uuid import re mac= hex(uuid.getnode()) # remove 0x mac=mac.replace('0x','') # break into 2 digit list mac=re.findall('..', mac) # add : separator print(':'.join(mac)) 1. Determine mac address with getnode() and convert it to a hex string with hex() function.
2. Remove leading 0x from it using replace() function.
3. Break the resulting string into 2 digit values using findall() function from re module.
findall() returns a list of values.
4. Combine the elements of this list with : as separator using python string join() function .
Output of this code will be
Method 2 : Using getmac module
Another method to get MAC address in python is using a third party package getmac .
It provides get_mac_address() function which returns MAC address. Example,
import getmac mac = getmac.get_mac_address() print(mac)
You can directly import this function as a shorter alias. This makes invoking it easier when required at multiple places. Example,
from getmac import get_mac_address as gmac mac = gmac()
As stated earlier, a single machine has multiple NICs installed.
With get_mac_address() function, you can get the MAC address of a hardware using its name.
It also enables you to find MAC address of a particular ip as shown below.
from getmac import get_mac_address as gmac eth_mac = gmac(interface="eth0") ip_mac = gmac(ip="127.0.0.1") host_mac = gmac(hostname="localhost")
Replace the hardware names as per the system on which you are running this program.
To install getmac package using pip, use below command
Hope that article was useful.
GhostofGoes / mac_addrs.py
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| # ************************************** |
| # ** Get MAC address of a remote host ** |
| def arpreq_ip ( ip ): |
| # type: (str) -> Optional[str] |
| import arpreq |
| return arpreq . arpreq ( ‘192.168.1.1’ ) |
| def scapy_ip ( ip ): |
| # type: (str) -> str |
| «»»Requires root permissions on POSIX platforms. |
| Windows does not have this limitation.»»» |
| from scapy . layers . l2 import getmacbyip |
| return getmacbyip ( ip ) |
| # ****************************************** |
| # ****************************************** |
| # ** Get MAC address of a local interface ** |
| def psutil_iface ( iface ): |
| # type: (str) -> Optional[str] |
| import psutil |
| nics = psutil . net_if_addrs () |
| if iface in nics : |
| nic = nics [ iface ] |
| for i in nic : |
| if i . family == psutil . AF_LINK : |
| return i . address |
| def netifaces_iface ( iface ): |
| # type: (str) -> str |
| import netifaces |
| return netifaces . ifaddresses ( iface )[ netifaces . AF_LINK ][ 0 ][ ‘addr’ ] |
| def scapy_iface ( iface ): |
| # type: (str) -> str |
| from scapy . layers . l2 import get_if_hwaddr |
| if WINDOWS : |
| from scapy . arch . windows import get_windows_if_list |
| interfaces = get_windows_if_list () |
| for i in interfaces : |
| if any ( iface in i [ x ] for x in |
| [ ‘name’ , ‘netid’ , ‘description’ , ‘win_index’ ]): |
| return i [ ‘mac’ ] |
| # WARNING: Do not put an ‘else’ here! |
| return get_if_hwaddr ( iface ) |
| # ******************************************** |
| # ******************************************** |
| # Determine the default interface for a system |
| def netifaces_default_gateway (): |
| # type: () -> str |
| import netifaces |
| return list ( netifaces . gateways ()[ ‘default’ ]. values ())[ 0 ][ 1 ] |
| # ******************************************** |