MAC Lookup

free

GET/v1/network/mac

Identifies the hardware manufacturer from a MAC address using the IEEE OUI database, and detects virtual machines, randomized/private MACs (iOS 14+, Android 10+, Windows), broadcast, and multicast addresses. Covers 30,000+ vendor OUIs from the full IEEE MA-L registry including Cisco, Apple, Samsung, Huawei, Ubiquiti, and all major virtualization platforms per IEEE 802 and RFC 7042.

What It Does

Parses the OUI (first 24 bits) of a MAC address to identify the manufacturer, then analyzes the U/L and I/G bits to classify the address type. Detects virtual machine MACs (VMware, VirtualBox, Hyper-V, QEMU/KVM, Xen, Parallels), identifies randomized MACs from mobile devices using MAC address randomization (iOS 14+, Android 10+), and classifies addresses as UAA (Universally Administered) or LAA (Locally Administered). Accepts colon, hyphen, no-separator, and Cisco dot formats.

Why It's Useful

MAC vendor identification is the first step in network device profiling for asset management, NAC (Network Access Control), and security monitoring. The VM and randomized MAC detection is critical for modern networks where mobile devices use per-network random MACs and cloud workloads run on virtual NICs — both of which break traditional MAC-based identification.

Use Cases

Network Administrator

Network Asset Discovery

Identify unknown devices on the network by looking up MAC addresses from switch port tables, ARP tables, or DHCP logs. Detect virtual machines and IoT devices automatically.

Maintain accurate network inventory and detect shadow IT without physical device inspection.

Security Analyst

Randomized MAC Detection (BYOD)

Detect devices using randomized MAC addresses (iOS 14+, Android 10+, Windows) that bypass MAC-based access controls and tracking. Identify when NAC policies are being circumvented.

Adapt security policies for modern BYOD environments where MAC randomization is the default.

Cloud Security Engineer

Virtual Machine & Container Detection

Identify virtual machine and container workloads on the network by detecting VM-specific OUI prefixes (VMware, Hyper-V, QEMU/KVM, VirtualBox).

Distinguish physical and virtual assets for compliance auditing and attack surface assessment.

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`mac`	string	Required	MAC address in any standard format: colon-separated (00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5E), hyphen-separated (00-1A-2B-3C-4D-5E), no separator (001A2B3C4D5E), or Cisco dot format (001A.2B3C.4D5E)Example: `00:50:56:C0:00:08`

Response Fields

Field	Type	Description
`mac`	string	The original MAC address as provided
`mac_normalized`	string	Normalized to XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX format
`oui`	string	The OUI portion (first 3 octets) used for vendor lookup
`vendor.name`	string	Manufacturer/vendor name from IEEE OUI database
`vendor.country`	string	Vendor country of registration (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2)
`is_private`	boolean	Whether MAC is locally administered (LAA) — U/L bit set
`is_multicast`	boolean	Whether MAC is a multicast address — I/G bit set
`is_broadcast`	boolean	Whether MAC is the broadcast address (FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF)
`is_virtual`	boolean	Whether MAC belongs to a known virtualization platform (VMware, VirtualBox, Hyper-V, QEMU, Xen, Parallels)
`is_randomized`	boolean	Whether MAC appears to be randomized (LAA with no known vendor — common with iOS 14+, Android 10+)
`type`	string	Address type: unicast, multicast, or broadcast
`administration`	string	Address administration: UAA (universally administered) or LAA (locally administered)

Code Examples

cURL

curl "https://api.edgedns.dev/v1/network/mac" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d "mac=00:50:56:C0:00:08"

JavaScript

const response = await fetch(
  'https://api.edgedns.dev/v1/network/mac?mac=00%3A50%3A56%3AC0%3A00%3A08',
  {
    headers: {
      'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_API_KEY'
    }
  }
);

const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

Python

import requests

response = requests.get(
    'https://api.edgedns.dev/v1/network/mac',
    headers={'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_API_KEY'},
    params={
    'mac': '00:50:56:C0:00:08'
    }
)

data = response.json()
print(data)

Read the full MAC Lookup guide

Why it matters, real-world use cases, parameters, response fields, and how to call it from Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini via MCP.

Read the guide →

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IP Geolocation

Get location, ASN, and org for an IP

External References

Learn more about the standards and protocols behind this endpoint.

IANA AS Numbers IEEE OUI Registry

Try This Endpoint

Test the MAC Lookup endpoint live in the playground.

Open in Playground Get API Key