Why can't I change my MAC address?

Question

I'm trying to change my MAC address using macchanger but it seems as if my device is not able to spoof a different address? I don't know but it seems as if no where has a solution to this.

root@kali:~# sudo macchanger -a wlan0                                                                                                                              
Current MAC:   XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX (Apple)
Permanent MAC: XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX (Apple)
[ERROR] Could not change MAC: interface up or insufficient permissions: Too many open files in system
root@kali:~# 

What does this mean? 'interface up or insufficient permissions'. I've tried this:

sudo ifconfig wlan0 down
sudo macchanger -a wlan0
sudo service network-manager restart

But I still get that error on the second command.

FYI:

root@kali:~# lspci | grep Wireless
03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4360 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 03)
root@kali:~# 

Solution

To change the MAC adress of the wlan0 interface, run the following commands:

ifconfig wlan0 down
ifconfig wlan0 hw ether XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
ifconfig wlan0 up

Verify:

ifconfig wlan0 |grep HWadd

Edit

Edit the 70-persistent-net.rules configuration file:

 nano /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

Change the MAC adress:

SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="wlan*", NAME="wlan0"

Replace xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx then reboot your machine.

edit2

Using iproute2 Methode:

ip link set dev wlan0 down
ip link set dev wlan0 address XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
ip link set dev wlan0 up

Comments

[SarahG]

As a comment and not an answer, but not all hardware allows setting the mac address.

[user3573987]

The hardware is not the problem because I just tried it on OS X and it worked

[user3573987]

SIOCSIFHWADDR: Too many open files in system

[user3573987]

Even after running: ulimit -n 4096

[user3573987]

root@kali:/etc/udev/rules.d# ls 70-persistent-cd.rules 73-usb-net-by-mac.rules

[user3573987]

and 70-persistent-cd.rules is empty. 73-usb-net-by-mac.rules is a bash file

[GAD3R]

try systemd-udevd wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MAC_address_spoofing

[user3573987]

File doesn't exist

[user3573987]

(edit2): RTNETLINK answers: Too many open files in system. This is what happens. As you can see its the same answer everytime. 'Too many open files in system' Has this got something to do with there being extra drivers I didn't need to use still there?

[user3573987]

even with SpoofMac, same thing: root@kali:~# spoof-mac.py randomize wlan0 RTNETLINK answers: Too many open files in system