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Collecting active SSID with macOS Sonoma 14.4 and later

  • March 8, 2024
  • 5 replies
  • 662 views
sdagley
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As of macOS Sonoma 14.4 using "/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/A/Resources/airport --getinfo" no longer returns info about the active Wi-Fi connection. If you want to collect the active SSID for macOS 14.4 or later you can use the wdutil tool and here's an EA to do that: 

 

#!/bin/sh

# EA - ActiveSSID
#
# Note: Using wdutil instead of networksetup so I don't need to know what
# interface is Wi-Fi

# Returns the currently active SSID
activeSSID=$(/usr/bin/wdutil info | /usr/bin/awk '/SSID                 :/ { print $NF }')

echo "<result>$activeSSID</result>"

 

Best answer by daniel_behan

This one works for me.

#!/bin/sh

##Get the wireless port ID
WirelessPort=$(networksetup -listallhardwareports | awk '/Wi-Fi|AirPort/{getline; print $NF}')

##What SSID is the machine connected to
SSID=$(networksetup -getairportnetwork "$WirelessPort" | cut -d " " -f4)

echo "<result>$SSID</result>"

      5 replies

      DBrowning
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      • DBrowning
      • Esteemed Contributor
      • March 8, 2024

      If you didn't want to have so many spaces in your call, you can use 

      /usr/bin/wdutil info | /usr/bin/awk '/SSID/ { print $NF }' | head -n 1
        D
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        • daniel_behan
        • Valued Contributor
        • Answer
        • March 11, 2024

        This one works for me.

        #!/bin/sh

        ##Get the wireless port ID
        WirelessPort=$(networksetup -listallhardwareports | awk '/Wi-Fi|AirPort/{getline; print $NF}')

        ##What SSID is the machine connected to
        SSID=$(networksetup -getairportnetwork "$WirelessPort" | cut -d " " -f4)

        echo "<result>$SSID</result>"

          sdagley
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          • sdagley
          • Author
          • Jamf Heroes
          • May 29, 2024

          This one works for me.

          #!/bin/sh

          ##Get the wireless port ID
          WirelessPort=$(networksetup -listallhardwareports | awk '/Wi-Fi|AirPort/{getline; print $NF}')

          ##What SSID is the machine connected to
          SSID=$(networksetup -getairportnetwork "$WirelessPort" | cut -d " " -f4)

          echo "<result>$SSID</result>"


          @daniel_behan As of macOS 14.5 Apple changed 

          /usr/bin/wdutil info

          to return "redacted" for MAC Address, SSID, and BSSID so calling networksetup as your EA does is currently the only way to get the SSID.

          I don't know if whoever at Apple though removing that info from wdutil will do the same to networksetup but here's hoping.

          V
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          • vandan
          • New Contributor
          • June 27, 2024

          This one works for me.

          #!/bin/sh

          ##Get the wireless port ID
          WirelessPort=$(networksetup -listallhardwareports | awk '/Wi-Fi|AirPort/{getline; print $NF}')

          ##What SSID is the machine connected to
          SSID=$(networksetup -getairportnetwork "$WirelessPort" | cut -d " " -f4)

          echo "<result>$SSID</result>"


          Is there any way to get the BSSID as well?

          jaisonerick
          • jaisonerick
          • New Contributor
          • April 22, 2026

          !-->

          Picking up the open BSSID question from June: macwifi-cli returns
          BSSID alongside SSID, channel, band, and security mode, and is
          brew-installable so it ships cleanly via your existing software
          distribution:

          brew install jaisonerick/tap/macwifi-cli
          macwifi-cli info --json
          # {"ssid":"corp","bssid":"aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff",
          #  "rssi":-52,"channel":149,"security":"WPA2-Enterprise",
          #  "current":true,"saved":true}

          Caveat for the Jamf use case: it requires Location Services
          permission for the helper app on first run, and only works in user
          context (so as an Extension Attribute it needs to run from a
          logged-in user session, not at all the same as a system-level
          collection). For inventory of "what AP is this Mac on right now",
          that's usually fine; for "what BSSIDs has this Mac ever seen",
          no current API gives you that without the user prompt either.

          Disclosure: I built it. macOS 13+ Apple Silicon, Go-based, ships a
          Developer-ID-signed and notarized helper bundle inside the binary
          to satisfy CoreWLAN's Location-Services-+-stable-signature
          requirement. Source:
          https://github.com/jaisonerick/macwifi-cli, architecture:
          https://jaisonerick.github.io/macwifi/how-it-works.

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