How to get mac address of the client without using activex - activex

Question

My main purpose is to give every machine using the website a unique id, one way would be to find the mac address of the client, but not using activex, and also cant assign ID using cookie because cookies can be deleted and not also using last modified date method, so any ideas on how I could assign a unique ID, thanks

Answer 1

You might be able to do this using a java applet, but HTML and web browser policies are very carefully designed to prevent you from doing something like this, as it would be considered a major security risk. A Mac address is certainly not possible to grab without either an activex control (which if discovered would probably get banned for providing such personal information to javascript, unless you had really carefully planned security) or at the very least a java applet that would require the user to grant it elevated privileges.
Most companies just assign a unique id and store it in a cookie in the browser. There are technologies such as FireBreath that make it easy to create browser plugins (activex control and npapi plugin), but again -- what you're talking about has the potential to be a very, very bad idea, so tread with care.

Answer 2

I know its too late to reply for this post..but to share my experience i am posting my answer.(I too faced the same problem)
I used the applet and deployed it on client's machine.
import java.applet.Applet;
import java.applet.Applet;
import java.net.InetAddress;
import java.net.NetworkInterface;
import java.net.SocketException;
public class app extends Applet{
public String macAddr="";
public void init()
{
try
{
System.out.println("Start");
InetAddress ip = InetAddress.getLocalHost();
System.out.println((new StringBuilder("Current IP address:"+ip.toString())));
NetworkInterface network = NetworkInterface.getByInetAddress(ip);
byte mac[] = network.getHardwareAddress();
System.out.println("mac : "+mac.toString());
System.out.print("Current MAC address : ");
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
for(int i = 0; i < mac.length; i++)
sb.append(String.format("%02X%s", new Object[] {
Byte.valueOf(mac[i]), i >= mac.length - 1 ? "" : "-"
}));
System.out.println(sb.toString());
macAddr=String.valueOf(sb);
System.out.println("okay good");
}
catch(SocketException e)
{
macAddr=e.toString();
e.printStackTrace();
System.out.println("not good");
}
catch (Exception e) {
macAddr=e.toString();
e.printStackTrace();
System.out.println("bad good");
}
}
}
The problem i faced after making this applet is[That it worked fine when i run it on Machine locally (RUN AS APPLET)], buT IT DOESNT WORK ON SERVER``
for that you have to sign your jar
Keytool -genkey -alias signFiles -keystore compstore -keypass KEYPASS -dname "cn=XYZ" -storepass KEY -validity 125000
jarsigner -keystore compstore -storepass PASS -keypass KEYPASS appletname.jar signFiles
After that it worked but not smoothly..as everytime i run it.Browser asks for permission.
which is not good.
I hope my experience helps