Getting a MAC address from a Web browser

Can you get a Web browser’s media access control (MAC) address from a Web server? It would probably be impractical to send an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) request.

Can you get a Web browser’s media access control address from a Web server? It would probably be impractical to send an Address Resolution Protocol request.

ARP would be blocked at the router local to the Web server because it is a broadcast protocol. To retrieve the MAC address of a browser machine, you need to have the browser collect and return operating-system-level information to the server. This violates most browser-based active content security models, although there are methods in the Microsoft environment for getting system-level network information from the inetmib.dll the way IPConfig and WinIPConfig do, and through NetBIOS and COM system calls.

The problem is making such system calls from the browser. ActiveX components such as ViewPoint collect system information remotely over the ‘Net, but these often require client software installation. If a site visitor installs downloaded software from you, then you can deliver a program that sends IPConfig output to the Web server.

You also might be able to obtain the MAC address from Windows machines without asking the user, by exploiting the fact that COM will include the system MAC address as part of identifiers it creates.