NFC Coding - MAC Address?

Ho3n3r

Ho3n3r

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Today is the first time I've really explored NFC, so my post is gonna be full of possibly stupid questions, and lack of knowledge.

What's needed:
1. Smartphone reads NFC tag.
2. NFC tag sends URL to phone, let's say for example the URL is http://ho3n3rmacaddresstest.com.
3. Phone amends said URL to include the phone's own MAC address - let's say the MAC address is 00:0a:95:9d:68:16, and making it 000a959d6816 to send through via query string. This would make the whole URL http://ho3n3rmacaddresstest.com?mac=000a959d6816

Would this be at all possible, and anyone got any info on how to get the MAC address via NFC?

Also, if MAC address is not possible, any other unique ID's (hardware ID etc.) that could be found instead?

Thanks in advance.
 
I don't think so.

When the tag gets scanned it will perform an action based on whatever your NFC handler is told to do. So if it sees a http(s) it will open the default app. There isn't anything that you can add to the url that will tell it to automatically put through the ID.

Shooting from the hip you'll need a custom app on the phone, and making it respond to a custom uri from the tag. So instead of htts:// make it yournfc:// which will launch your app's activity, and from there you can pick up the identifiers and post it to a website.
 
what do you want do achieve? i have some interesting NFC technology
 
Spacerat said:
what do you want do achieve? i have some interesting NFC technology
Click to expand...

Basically every time someone activates the NFC device, it will need to log an entry with data, which will include identifying automatically which user it was via a unique detail on the phone - MAC Address was specified, but anything unique that I can do via NFC would help really.
 
Ho3n3r said:
Basically every time someone activates the NFC device, it will need to log an entry with data, which will include identifying automatically which user it was via a unique detail on the phone - MAC Address was specified, but anything unique that I can do via NFC would help really.
Click to expand...

Can't you uniquely identify phone by server request vairables?
 
OK so the requirements have expanded slightly - I need something that will work on all OS, not just a single one. Is there any type of command you can send to a phone which enables you to get the MAC address, or any unique ID?

thehuman said:
Can't you uniquely identify phone by server request vairables?
Click to expand...

I dunno, can you?
 
Ho3n3r said:
OK so the requirements have expanded slightly - I need something that will work on all OS, not just a single one. Is there any type of command you can send to a phone which enables you to get the MAC address, or any unique ID?
Click to expand...

What is your development/application environment? I assumed native app on android.
 
lol no. There is no way you can do that with a native browser, you need an app on all the devices to do what you are doing.

If uniquely tracking a device was this simple then ad tracking would be so much simpler.
 
gkm said:
What is your development/application environment? I assumed native app on android.
Click to expand...

There is no development yet. I need to figure out what the limits of NFC is, and how to uniquely identify each phone(user) server side after a URL has been visited. And the end product will need to work on any NFC-enabled phone, regardless of brand/OS.
 
I am not an expert on NFC, but I believe you will to develop native software for each supported device class. I do not think what you want to do is possible via a web browser only.
 
I think he has me on ignore, or probably thinks I'm talking ****. Good luck with your NFC research.
 
If the device must be uniquely identified server-side, you may be able to use something like "Ever cookie" which is a stubbornly persistent cookie.

It is not really designed for the mobile market but depending on your use case it may well be easier and as reliable as creating an app for each OS.

http://samy.pl/evercookie/
 
Or possibly "browser fingerprinting" as well. Have a look at the "fingerprinting" on Panopticlick (note: this demo site is intended to demo to the public how easily they can be tracked and warn them againt that...)

https://panopticlick.eff.org/

But- neither of these solutions by themselves can link a specific device to website visits reliably. Do some research, and get an idea of what level of accuracy you need.
 
whatwhat said:
I think he has me on ignore, or probably thinks I'm talking ****. Good luck with your NFC research.
Click to expand...

Neither.

scudsucker said:
If the device must be uniquely identified server-side, you may be able to use something like "Ever cookie" which is a stubbornly persistent cookie.

It is not really designed for the mobile market but depending on your use case it may well be easier and as reliable as creating an app for each OS.

http://samy.pl/evercookie/
Click to expand...

Thanks dude.

However, we've decided to redirect them to a login route via the URL - it will help us with many other things as well. Thanks for the advice nonetheless. Now I know quite a bit more about NFC. :)
 
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