Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    MAC Filtering on WIFI : Possible or Not ?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Wireless
    16 Posts 6 Posters 15.5k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • W Offline
      wallabybob
      last edited by

      @papou:

      Using Captive Portal seems not to be the solution in my case, because with Captive activated, a computer not in Pass-Through MAC can connect to my LAN by WIFI.

      Its not always easy to get the details on how things work. My observation, after using captive portal on a WiFi interface for some months, is that traffic received on a captive portal interface doesn't get past the captive portal interface UNLESS its in one of the pass through lists or is from an authenticated system.  BUT I haven't used the captive portal on a bridged interface so I can't comment on whether bridging happens BEFORE captive portal or AFTER.

      Do you need to bridge WiFi and LAN? (The configuration information you posted suggests you haven't bridged WiFi and LAN.)

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • P Offline
        papou
        last edited by

        Yes in fact i have Bridging

        My configuration :

        WAN (re0) : Static IP 192.168.1.1 no DHCP
        WIFILAN (run0) : static IP 192.168.3.1 no DHCP
        WIREDLAN (sis0) : static IP 192.168.2.1 no DHCP
        LAN BRIDGE0 (WIRELAN + WIFILAN) : Static IP 192.168.0.1
        DHCP on LAN Range 192.168.0.31 to 192.168.0.254 and Static IP address assign to MAC for 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.30 (with some hole)

        I did the bridging to have all my devices (WIFI or WIRED) with the same range of IP : 192.168.0.x (perhaps it is stupid to do a bridging for that ?)

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • W Offline
          wallabybob
          last edited by

          Bridge members shouldn't have an IP address - the bridge device itself has the IP address.

          Why not try Captive Portal without bridging the WiFi and LAN interfaces?

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • P Offline
            papou
            last edited by

            @wallabybob:

            Bridge members shouldn't have an IP address - the bridge device itself has the IP address.

            Why not try Captive Portal without bridging the WiFi and LAN interfaces?

            Thanks Wallabybob,  ;)
            I will try this, i did this bridge at the begining to simplify the FW rules
            Have a nice WE  ;D !

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • P Offline
              papou
              last edited by

              I look around my config (i remember to have seen something for mac filtering in a conf file) and I found  in /var/etc/hostapd_run0_wlan0.conf

              #accept_mac_file=/tmp/hostapd_run0_wlan0.accept
              #deny_mac_file=/tmp/hostapd_run0_wlan0.deny

              I think that if i uncomment the accept_mac_file it will work as i want.(aftrer of course adding trustedMAC in a file) Am i wrong ?  ???
              If not can it be possible to add this functionality to future Pfsense version ? (because for me it is clearly a security hole. Avoiding unknown MAC to connect is clearly complicating the Hacker tasks…). And this functionality is available on all Home routers and it is surprising not to find it on a so powerfull software  ;)

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • W Offline
                wallabybob
                last edited by

                pfSense pretty much needs to be configured through the web GUI rather than application configuration files because the application configuration files are generally regenerated on startup from the stored GUI configuration file.

                @papou:

                Avoiding unknown MAC to connect is clearly complicating the Hacker tasks…). And this functionality is available on all Home routers and it is surprising not to find it on a so powerfull software  ;)

                If I understand your requirements correctly, one way you can get what you want is to enable captive portal on your WiFi interface, provide a captive portal page with no option for the user to provide authentication information (the empty default one may do or you might want to add something more informative) and add the "authorised" MAC addresses to Services -> Captive Portal, Pass-through MAC tab.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • P Offline
                  papou
                  last edited by

                  @wallabybob:

                  pfSense pretty much needs to be configured through the web GUI rather than application configuration files because the application configuration files are generally regenerated on startup from the stored GUI configuration file.

                  I understand the problem.

                  @papou:

                  Avoiding unknown MAC to connect is clearly complicating the Hacker tasks…). And this functionality is available on all Home routers and it is surprising not to find it on a so powerfull software  ;)

                  If I understand your requirements correctly, one way you can get what you want is to enable captive portal on your WiFi interface, provide a captive portal page with no option for the user to provide authentication information (the empty default one may do or you might want to add something more informative) and add the "authorised" MAC addresses to Services -> Captive Portal, Pass-through MAC tab.

                  I clearly will try that, unbridging and use Captive Portal

                  Thx wallabybob !  :D

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • R Offline
                    Ronoc
                    last edited by

                    I have a similar setup except I have the MAC filtering done on my AP. (First Gen Airport Extreme N) This way clients do not touch my network, the AP refuses the connection.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • P Offline
                      papou
                      last edited by

                      Thx Ronoc, i think it could be great to integrate this functionality in Pfsense… At the wifi interface level (two combo box to chose accept ro deny list) and a list of mac adresse (like in DHCP for expemple).  ;)

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • M Offline
                        mastablastaz
                        last edited by

                        just plug in your wifi ap as a switch on your pfsense and enable dhcp on that port + mac filtering

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • K Offline
                          kapara
                          last edited by

                          Do you have a specific reason for wanting to keep both on the same range?  If dhcp is rnabled on the wireless interface you can do Mac filtering on that interface.  Maybe I do not understand….

                          Skype ID:  Marinhd

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • dotdashD Offline
                            dotdash
                            last edited by

                            FreeBSD supports MAC filtering on wireless interfaces. See the ifconfig manpage:
                            The following parameters support an optional access control list feature
                                available with some adapters when operating in ap mode; see wlan_acl(4).
                                This facility allows an access point to accept/deny association requests
                                based on the MAC address of the station.  Note that this feature does not
                                significantly enhance security as MAC address spoofing is easy to do.

                            Due to the fact that most agree on the last sentence quoted above, there has been little interest in putting the feature in the GUI. If you would like the feature implemented, you could try a bounty.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • P Offline
                              papou
                              last edited by

                              @dotdash:

                              FreeBSD supports MAC filtering on wireless interfaces. See the ifconfig manpage:
                              The following parameters support an optional access control list feature
                                  available with some adapters when operating in ap mode; see wlan_acl(4).
                                  This facility allows an access point to accept/deny association requests
                                  based on the MAC address of the station.  Note that this feature does not
                                  significantly enhance security as MAC address spoofing is easy to do.

                              Due to the fact that most agree on the last sentence quoted above, there has been little interest in putting the feature in the GUI. If you would like the feature implemented, you could try a bounty.

                              Thanks for you answer. I will to eat  my  bounty by myself  and do not hesitate to correct me if i am wrong in my solution bellow :)
                              1/ editing the /etc/inc/inferfaces.inc and replace the #accept_mac_file line by : accept_mac_file=/conf/hostapd.mac.accept
                              2/ create a file in /conf/hostapd.mac.accept  with all your MAC address (one MAC address per line)
                              3/ disable and then enable your WIFI Interface
                              4/Enjoy ! ;)

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • First post
                                Last post
                              Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.