Can't change MAC address

Question

Neither of the two methods work and give me an error about having too many files open.

Method 1:

root@kali:~# service network-manager stop
root@kali:~# macchanger -r wlan0
[ERROR] Could not change MAC: interface up or insufficient permissions: Too many open files in system
root@kali:~# service network-manager restart

As you can see, macchanger does not work.

Method 2:

root@kali:~# ifconfig wlan0 down
root@kali:~# ifconfig wlan0 hw ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
SIOCSIFHWADDR: Too many open files in system
root@kali:~# ifconfig wlan0 up

LawrenceC · Answer

If @pedr0ubuntu's answer doesn't help, something to keep in mind from here is:

For many of the network related ioctls and netlink commands, the usual
error codes are "overloaded" to mean different things. For example,
when tryign to add a route that exlready exists (or would conflict)
the system returns -EEXIST ("File exists"). Unfortunately the tools
blindly perror() the result, so the errors are often misleading.

So, two things:

MAC address might not be able to be changed while wlan0 is up.  Turn it down, then try to change the MAC.

Driver may not support changing the MAC.  This is unfortunately not uncommon with Wifi adapters.

pedr0 ubuntu · Answer

I have installed kali 2.0 rolling a few days ago , and macchanger tool work well with no problems ..
"i have checked that in modem webpage, with ifconfig command and in NM (network-manager)"...

The problem cames when i have decided to 'update' my distro... ever since that 'update' that iam facing the sames bugs decribe in this article...

I have writen one toolkit that uses macchanger to spoof your mac+ip address, but since that day i was forced to came up with one soluction to my problem (spoof my mac and ip addrs)...

For Reference:
When using NetworkManager(NM) to access the net, any spoofed mac address(MAC) produced thru the terminal window(TW) when using macchanger tool will be over-written by NM. If no cloned mac address exists in NM menu settings, then the device is returned to the device MAC and any mac spoofing set by the user thru the TW disappears.

Bypass: follow this steps to change your mac in kali 2.0 rolling release (no macchanger needed)

Gh0st-Ubuntu == (MY ROUTER ESSID NAME) ||  00:03:93:a8:04:b8 == spoofed mac to insert in NM

service network-manager stop
    sleep 3
    ifconfig wlan0 down
    sleep 2
    find "/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/Gh0st-Ubuntu" -type f -exec sh -c "sed -i "/^cloned-mac-address.*/d;/^[wifi]/acloned-mac-address=00:03:93:a8:04:b8" "{}"" ;
    sleep 2
    ifconfig wlan0 up
    sleep 2
    service network-manager start

To 'revert' settings just restart your machine or delete '00:03:93:a8:04:b8' cloned mac from the above 'find' string (command). Hope it helps...
screenshot of the above command list

BSwordsman · Answer

Have you tried adding Sudo in front of the commands?

Example:

sudo ifconfig wlan0 down

sudo macchanger -a wlan0

sudo service network-manager restart

Can't change MAC address

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