# Redact MAC addresses

> Redact hardware MAC addresses from network logs, DHCP dumps, and device inventories.

Canonical: https://bitbanger.in/entities/mac-address
Last updated: 2026-10-27

Category: Device identifiers · Entity type: `device.mac_address`

A MAC address identifies a network interface and, through it, usually a person: it appears in router logs, captive portals, and asset registers.

## How Redactly detects MAC addresses

- Matched by regex for six hex pairs separated by colons or hyphens.
- Case-insensitive, because captures differ between vendors.
- Runs independently of the model.

## Why redact MAC addresses?

Network logs are among the most frequently shared files in incident response, and they carry MAC addresses throughout.

## Example request

```bash
curl -X POST https://api.bitbanger.in/v1/redact \
  -H "X-API-Key: rdct_your_key_here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"text": "DHCP lease 00:1A:2B:3C:4D:5E assigned to desk-14.", "style": "replace"}'
```

## FAQ

**Does Redactly redact MAC addresses automatically?**

Yes. Send text to the API and every detected type is redacted, including MAC addresses. To redact only this type, pass the value device.mac_address in the entities filter. No training or configuration is required.

**What happens to MAC addresses after redaction?**

With style set to replace, each match becomes [device.mac_address] — the entity type in square brackets. Setting style to mask replaces every character with a block character, and remove deletes the span entirely.

## Related entity types

- [IP addresses](https://bitbanger.in/entities/ip-address) — Redact IPv4 addresses from access logs, error traces, and analytics exports with a format check per octet.
- [IMEI numbers](https://bitbanger.in/entities/imei) — Redact 15-digit IMEI numbers from warranty claims, device logs, and repair tickets.
- [Device identifiers](https://bitbanger.in/entities/device-id) — Redact device IDs and installation identifiers from analytics payloads and crash reports.

Try it on your own text: https://bitbanger.in/entities/mac-address