R Package MAC.address on CRAN

1 Introduction

A MAC (Media Access Control) address is the 48-bit hardware identifier of a network interface, usually written as six hexadecimal bytes such as 00:00:5E:00:53:2A. The first bytes identify the manufacturer: they are a block assigned by the IEEE Registration Authority.

MAC.address is an R package to work with these addresses: list the ones of your own device and of your local network, extract them from text, validate and normalize them, and find out who made the device. Version 0.1.0 is now available on CRAN, and it depends only on base R.

👉 https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=MAC.address

2 Installation

Requires R ≥ 4.0.0.

# From CRAN
install.packages("MAC.address")

# Development version, from GitHub
# install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github("EnriquePH/mac-address")

library(MAC.address)

3 Examples

3.1 Addresses of this device and its network

get_MAC() returns the MAC addresses of the local network interfaces, named by interface, on Linux, macOS and Windows:

get_MAC()
#>            enp3s0f1              wlp2s0
#> "9C:5C:8E:12:34:56" "10:02:B5:AB:CD:EF"

get_arp_table() reads the ARP cache: the IP and MAC addresses of the neighbors your computer has talked to. Combined with lookup_vendor() it tells you what kind of devices are on the network:

arp <- get_arp_table()
arp$vendor <- lookup_vendor(arp$mac)
arp
#>            ip               mac interface        vendor
#> 1 192.168.1.1 D4:61:95:00:11:22    wlp2s0 zte corporation

Both functions only read the local network configuration; they do not send any packets.

3.2 Search, validate and normalize

search_MAC() extracts addresses from free text in colon, hyphen and Cisco dotted notation, and can convert them all to a common format:

txt <- "eth0 00:00:5e:00:53:2a, wlan0 00-1A-2B-3C-4D-5E, switch 001a.2b3c.4d5f"

search_MAC(txt)
#> [1] "00:00:5E:00:53:2A" "00-1A-2B-3C-4D-5E" "001A.2B3C.4D5F"

search_MAC(txt, normalize = TRUE)
#> [1] "00:00:5E:00:53:2A" "00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5E" "00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5F"

is_MAC(c("00:00:5E:00:53:2A", "00:00:5E:00:53"))
#> [1]  TRUE FALSE

normalize_MAC("0000.5e00.532a", sep = "-")
#> [1] "00-00-5E-00-53-2A"

3.3 Who made this device?

lookup_vendor() identifies the manufacturer using the IEEE MA-L (the classic 24-bit OUI), MA-M (28-bit) and MA-S (36-bit) registries. They are downloaded once by get_oui_registry() and cached with tools::R_user_dir(), so later lookups work offline:

lookup_vendor(get_MAC())
#> [1] "ASUSTek COMPUTER INC." "Intel Corporate"

3.4 Address bits and conversions

Two bits of the first byte carry meaning. The multicast bit marks group addresses, and the locally administered bit marks addresses that were not assigned by the IEEE, such as the randomized addresses of phones or the ones of virtual machines, so they will not have a vendor:

is_local_MAC("DA:A1:19:00:00:00")
#> [1] TRUE

is_multicast_MAC("01:00:5E:00:00:FB")
#> [1] TRUE

# Random locally administered addresses, e.g. for virtual machines
set.seed(1)
random_MAC(2)
#> [1] "FA:80:D6:D1:E0:69" "42:A1:2A:BA:54:B5"

eui64_MAC() derives the IPv6 interface identifier (modified EUI-64, RFC 4291) and the link-local address of an interface:

eui64_MAC("00:00:5E:00:53:2A", link_local = TRUE)
#> [1] "fe80::200:5eff:fe00:532a"

4 Main functions

Function	Purpose
`get_MAC()`	MAC addresses of the local network interfaces
`get_arp_table()`	IP and MAC addresses of the neighbors in the ARP cache
`search_MAC()`	Extract MAC addresses from text
`is_MAC()`	Check whether strings are valid MAC addresses
`normalize_MAC()`	Convert to a common notation (`XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX` by default)
`is_local_MAC()`	Check the locally administered bit
`is_multicast_MAC()`	Check the multicast (group) bit
`random_MAC()`	Generate random (by default locally administered) addresses
`eui64_MAC()`	IPv6 modified EUI-64 identifier and link-local address
`get_oui_registry()`	Download (and cache) the IEEE MA-L, MA-M and MA-S registries
`lookup_vendor()`	Organization that owns each MAC address block

5 License

The package is distributed under the MIT License.

6 Links

--- title: R Package MAC.address on CRAN description: Find, validate and identify device MAC addresses from R author: 'Enrique Pérez Herrero' date: '2026-10-26' image: 'mac-address-logo.png' image-alt: "MAC.address logo: a circuit hexagon next to the documentation address 00:00:5E:00:53:2A split into vendor (OUI) and device parts" categories: - R - Package - Networking editor: source lang: en draft: false engine: markdown --- [![CRAN status](https://www.r-pkg.org/badges/version/MAC.address)](https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=MAC.address) [![R-CMD-check](https://github.com/EnriquePH/mac-address/actions/workflows/R-CMD-check.yaml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/EnriquePH/mac-address/actions/workflows/R-CMD-check.yaml) [![R ≥ 4.0.0](https://img.shields.io/badge/R-%E2%89%A5%204.0.0-276dc3)](https://www.r-project.org/) [![Dependencies: base R only](https://img.shields.io/badge/dependencies-base%20R%20only-brightgreen)](https://github.com/EnriquePH/mac-address/blob/main/DESCRIPTION) [![License: MIT](https://img.shields.io/badge/license-MIT-green)](https://github.com/EnriquePH/mac-address/blob/main/LICENSE.md) ![](mac-address-logo.png){fig-alt="MAC.address logo" width="480" fig-align="left"} ## Introduction A **MAC (Media Access Control) address** is the 48-bit hardware identifier of a network interface, usually written as six hexadecimal bytes such as `00:00:5E:00:53:2A`. The first bytes identify the manufacturer: they are a block assigned by the [IEEE Registration Authority](https://regauth.standards.ieee.org/standards-ra-web/pub/view.html#registries). `MAC.address` is an R package to work with these addresses: list the ones of your own device and of your local network, extract them from text, validate and normalize them, and find out who made the device. Version **0.1.0** is now available on **CRAN**, and it depends only on base R. 👉 https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=MAC.address --- ## Installation Requires **R ≥ 4.0.0**. ```r # From CRAN install.packages("MAC.address") # Development version, from GitHub # install.packages("remotes") remotes::install_github("EnriquePH/mac-address") library(MAC.address) ``` --- ## Examples ### Addresses of this device and its network `get_MAC()` returns the MAC addresses of the local network interfaces, named by interface, on Linux, macOS and Windows: ```r get_MAC() #> enp3s0f1 wlp2s0 #> "9C:5C:8E:12:34:56" "10:02:B5:AB:CD:EF" ``` `get_arp_table()` reads the ARP cache: the IP and MAC addresses of the neighbors your computer has talked to. Combined with `lookup_vendor()` it tells you what kind of devices are on the network: ```r arp <- get_arp_table() arp$vendor <- lookup_vendor(arp$mac) arp #> ip mac interface vendor #> 1 192.168.1.1 D4:61:95:00:11:22 wlp2s0 zte corporation ``` Both functions only read the local network configuration; they do not send any packets. ### Search, validate and normalize `search_MAC()` extracts addresses from free text in colon, hyphen and Cisco dotted notation, and can convert them all to a common format: ```r txt <- "eth0 00:00:5e:00:53:2a, wlan0 00-1A-2B-3C-4D-5E, switch 001a.2b3c.4d5f" search_MAC(txt) #> [1] "00:00:5E:00:53:2A" "00-1A-2B-3C-4D-5E" "001A.2B3C.4D5F" search_MAC(txt, normalize = TRUE) #> [1] "00:00:5E:00:53:2A" "00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5E" "00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5F" is_MAC(c("00:00:5E:00:53:2A", "00:00:5E:00:53")) #> [1] TRUE FALSE normalize_MAC("0000.5e00.532a", sep = "-") #> [1] "00-00-5E-00-53-2A" ``` ### Who made this device? `lookup_vendor()` identifies the manufacturer using the IEEE **MA-L** (the classic 24-bit OUI), **MA-M** (28-bit) and **MA-S** (36-bit) registries. They are downloaded once by `get_oui_registry()` and cached with `tools::R_user_dir()`, so later lookups work offline: ```r lookup_vendor(get_MAC()) #> [1] "ASUSTek COMPUTER INC." "Intel Corporate" ``` ### Address bits and conversions Two bits of the first byte carry meaning. The **multicast** bit marks group addresses, and the **locally administered** bit marks addresses that were not assigned by the IEEE, such as the randomized addresses of phones or the ones of virtual machines, so they will not have a vendor: ```r is_local_MAC("DA:A1:19:00:00:00") #> [1] TRUE is_multicast_MAC("01:00:5E:00:00:FB") #> [1] TRUE # Random locally administered addresses, e.g. for virtual machines set.seed(1) random_MAC(2) #> [1] "FA:80:D6:D1:E0:69" "42:A1:2A:BA:54:B5" ``` `eui64_MAC()` derives the IPv6 interface identifier (modified EUI-64, [RFC 4291](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4291#appendix-A)) and the link-local address of an interface: ```r eui64_MAC("00:00:5E:00:53:2A", link_local = TRUE) #> [1] "fe80::200:5eff:fe00:532a" ``` --- ## Main functions | Function | Purpose | | --- | --- | | `get_MAC()` | MAC addresses of the local network interfaces | | `get_arp_table()` | IP and MAC addresses of the neighbors in the ARP cache | | `search_MAC()` | Extract MAC addresses from text | | `is_MAC()` | Check whether strings are valid MAC addresses | | `normalize_MAC()` | Convert to a common notation (`XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX` by default) | | `is_local_MAC()` | Check the locally administered bit | | `is_multicast_MAC()` | Check the multicast (group) bit | | `random_MAC()` | Generate random (by default locally administered) addresses | | `eui64_MAC()` | IPv6 modified EUI-64 identifier and link-local address | | `get_oui_registry()` | Download (and cache) the IEEE MA-L, MA-M and MA-S registries | | `lookup_vendor()` | Organization that owns each MAC address block | ## License The package is distributed under the [MIT License](https://github.com/EnriquePH/mac-address/blob/main/LICENSE.md). ## Links - [CRAN - MAC.address](https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=MAC.address) - [GitHub - EnriquePH/mac-address](https://github.com/EnriquePH/mac-address) - [Documentation (pkgdown)](https://enriqueph.github.io/mac-address/) - [IEEE Registration Authority - registries](https://regauth.standards.ieee.org/standards-ra-web/pub/view.html#registries) - [RFC 4291, appendix A - modified EUI-64](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4291#appendix-A)