--- title: Reverse-engineering the UniFi inform protocol — Tamarack description: A deep dive into the UniFi inform protocol, revealing that device MAC addresses are transmitted in plaintext in the first 14 bytes of every AES-encrypted... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/reverse-engineering-the-unifi-inform-protocol-tamarack-lebgeqper twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Reverse-engineering the UniFi inform protocol — Tamarack | daily.dev og:description: A deep dive into the UniFi inform protocol, revealing that device MAC addresses are transmitted in plaintext in the first 14 bytes of every AES-encrypted... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/reverse-engineering-the-unifi-inform-protocol-tamarack-lebgeqper og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/leBGeqpER.png og:image:alt: Reverse-engineering the UniFi inform protocol — Tamarack og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Reverse-engineering the UniFi inform protocol — Tamarack **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 5 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A deep dive into the UniFi inform protocol, revealing that device MAC addresses are transmitted in plaintext in the first 14 bytes of every AES-encrypted packet. This discovery enables building a multi-tenant routing proxy for UniFi controllers without decrypting traffic. The author explains how this insight transformed an economically unviable hosted UniFi service (with $1-2 margins per customer) into a viable business by routing multiple customers' devices to shared infrastructure using a ~200-line Go proxy that reads the MAC and forwards packets to the correct backend controller. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Find My and Find Hub Network Research](https://daily.dev/posts/find-my-and-find-hub-network-research-p9dsdz3eb) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Reverse Engineering A Mysterious UDP Stream in My Hotel](https://daily.dev/posts/reverse-engineering-a-mysterious-udp-stream-in-my-hotel-tgvreoqmw) · Hacker News · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Your router still depends on a 44-year-old protocol to locate every device on your network](https://daily.dev/posts/your-router-still-depends-on-a-44-year-old-protocol-to-locate-every-device-on-your-network-imka9mnej) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#golang](https://daily.dev/tags/golang), [#multi-tenancy](https://daily.dev/tags/multi-tenancy), [#networking](https://daily.dev/tags/networking), [#reverse-engineering](https://daily.dev/tags/reverse-engineering) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/reverse-engineering-the-unifi-inform-protocol-tamarack-lebgeqper) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Reverse-engineering the UniFi inform protocol — Tamarack","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/reverse-engineering-the-unifi-inform-protocol-tamarack-lebgeqper","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/reverse-engineering-the-unifi-inform-protocol-tamarack-lebgeqper"},"datePublished":"2026-03-09T17:23:17.755Z","dateModified":"2026-03-15T03:45:42.380Z","description":"A deep dive into the UniFi inform protocol, revealing that device MAC addresses are transmitted in plaintext in the first 14 bytes of every AES-encrypted...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/746470c5c1c975e6b220a92fffff3007?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/746470c5c1c975e6b220a92fffff3007?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hacker News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hacker News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/hn","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/reverse-engineering-the-unifi-inform-protocol-tamarack-lebgeqper","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"golang,multi-tenancy,networking,reverse-engineering","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hacker News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Reverse-engineering the UniFi inform protocol — Tamarack"}]} ```