How can I programmatically get the MAC address of an iphone

Update: this will not work on iOS 7. You should use ASIdentifierManager.

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More clean solution on MobileDeveloperTips website:

#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <sys/sysctl.h>
#include <net/if.h>
#include <net/if_dl.h>

...

- (NSString *)getMacAddress
{
  int                 mgmtInfoBase[6];
  char                *msgBuffer = NULL;
  size_t              length;
  unsigned char       macAddress[6];
  struct if_msghdr    *interfaceMsgStruct;
  struct sockaddr_dl  *socketStruct;
  NSString            *errorFlag = NULL;

  // Setup the management Information Base (mib)
  mgmtInfoBase[0] = CTL_NET;        // Request network subsystem
  mgmtInfoBase[1] = AF_ROUTE;       // Routing table info
  mgmtInfoBase[2] = 0;              
  mgmtInfoBase[3] = AF_LINK;        // Request link layer information
  mgmtInfoBase[4] = NET_RT_IFLIST;  // Request all configured interfaces

  // With all configured interfaces requested, get handle index
  if ((mgmtInfoBase[5] = if_nametoindex("en0")) == 0) 
    errorFlag = @"if_nametoindex failure";
  else
  {
    // Get the size of the data available (store in len)
    if (sysctl(mgmtInfoBase, 6, NULL, &length, NULL, 0) < 0) 
      errorFlag = @"sysctl mgmtInfoBase failure";
    else
    {
      // Alloc memory based on above call
      if ((msgBuffer = malloc(length)) == NULL)
        errorFlag = @"buffer allocation failure";
      else
      {
        // Get system information, store in buffer
        if (sysctl(mgmtInfoBase, 6, msgBuffer, &length, NULL, 0) < 0)
          errorFlag = @"sysctl msgBuffer failure";
      }
    }
  }

  // Befor going any further...
  if (errorFlag != NULL)
  {
    NSLog(@"Error: %@", errorFlag);
    return errorFlag;
  }

  // Map msgbuffer to interface message structure
  interfaceMsgStruct = (struct if_msghdr *) msgBuffer;

  // Map to link-level socket structure
  socketStruct = (struct sockaddr_dl *) (interfaceMsgStruct + 1);

  // Copy link layer address data in socket structure to an array
  memcpy(&macAddress, socketStruct->sdl_data + socketStruct->sdl_nlen, 6);

  // Read from char array into a string object, into traditional Mac address format
  NSString *macAddressString = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%02X:%02X:%02X:%02X:%02X:%02X", 
                                macAddress[0], macAddress[1], macAddress[2], 
                                macAddress[3], macAddress[4], macAddress[5]];
  NSLog(@"Mac Address: %@", macAddressString);

  // Release the buffer memory
  free(msgBuffer);

  return macAddressString;
}

I wanted something to return the address regardless of whether or not wifi was enabled, so the chosen solution didn't work for me. I used another call I found on some forum after some tweaking. I ended up with the following (excuse my rusty C ) :

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <net/if_dl.h>
#include <ifaddrs.h>


char*  getMacAddress(char* macAddress, char* ifName) {

int  success;
struct ifaddrs * addrs;
struct ifaddrs * cursor;
const struct sockaddr_dl * dlAddr;
const unsigned char* base;
int i;

success = getifaddrs(&addrs) == 0;
if (success) {
    cursor = addrs;
    while (cursor != 0) {
        if ( (cursor->ifa_addr->sa_family == AF_LINK)
            && (((const struct sockaddr_dl *) cursor->ifa_addr)->sdl_type == IFT_ETHER) && strcmp(ifName,  cursor->ifa_name)==0 ) {
            dlAddr = (const struct sockaddr_dl *) cursor->ifa_addr;
            base = (const unsigned char*) &dlAddr->sdl_data[dlAddr->sdl_nlen];
            strcpy(macAddress, ""); 
            for (i = 0; i < dlAddr->sdl_alen; i++) {
                if (i != 0) {
                    strcat(macAddress, ":");
                }
                char partialAddr[3];
                sprintf(partialAddr, "%02X", base[i]);
                strcat(macAddress, partialAddr);

            }
        }
        cursor = cursor->ifa_next;
    }

    freeifaddrs(addrs);
}    
return macAddress;
}

And then I would call it asking for en0, as follows:

char* macAddressString= (char*)malloc(18);
NSString* macAddress= [[NSString alloc] initWithCString:getMacAddress(macAddressString, "en0")
                                              encoding:NSMacOSRomanStringEncoding];
free(macAddressString);

Starting from iOS 7, the system always returns the value 02:00:00:00:00:00 when you ask for the MAC address on any device.

In iOS 7 and later, if you ask for the MAC address of an iOS device, the system returns the value 02:00:00:00:00:00. If you need to identify the device, use the identifierForVendor property of UIDevice instead. (Apps that need an identifier for their own advertising purposes should consider using the advertisingIdentifier property of ASIdentifierManager instead.)"

Reference: releasenotes

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NOTE As of iOS7, you can no longer retrieve device MAC addresses. A fixed value will be returned rather than the actual MAC

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Somthing I stumbled across a while ago. Originally from here I modified it a bit and cleaned things up.

IPAddress.h
IPAddress.c

And to use it

InitAddresses();
GetIPAddresses();
GetHWAddresses();

int i;
NSString *deviceIP = nil;
for (i=0; i<MAXADDRS; ++i)
{
    static unsigned long localHost = 0x7F000001;        // 127.0.0.1
    unsigned long theAddr;

    theAddr = ip_addrs[i];

    if (theAddr == 0) break;
    if (theAddr == localHost) continue;

    NSLog(@"Name: %s MAC: %s IP: %s\n", if_names[i], hw_addrs[i], ip_names[i]);

        //decided what adapter you want details for
    if (strncmp(if_names[i], "en", 2) == 0)
    {
        NSLog(@"Adapter en has a IP of %s", ip_names[i]);
    }
}

Adapter names vary depending on the simulator/device as well as wifi or cell on the device.