How to get IP address of device from its MAC address on network?

Question

Though it seems possible duplicate of this question. But the need to ask this question again is to simplify the scenario and the demands to just finding the IP address of the device.

The network in question can have multiple devices, multiple switches and no routers in between.

Things I've already tried:

1. Checking local ARP table by arp -a command. Though it works sometimes, but it's passive and not reliable.

2. Reverse ARP, Dynamic Reverse ARP and Inverse ARP. The devices on networks seems very rude. They never answer these requests.

What I need: Some protocol(like ARP), in which I can send packets to target device by addressing its MAC. In return I get the device to send me some packet possibly with its IP. PS: A protocol that emulates MAC-ping can also suffice as a compromise.

Also, do LLDP and CDP request/response are implemented universally? Can I rely on them to accomplish the task?

Answer 1

The network in question can have multiple devices, multiple switches and no routers in between.

A MAC address has only meaning within the scope of its local segment (same switch or VLAN), outside it's meaningless and there's no way to use it or find out anything about it network-wise.

Reverse ARP, Dynamic Reverse ARP and Inverse ARP. The devices on networks seems very rude. They never answer these requests.

That is absolutely normal. If these (mostly obsolete) functions aren't implemented and explicitly activated on your equipment they simply won't work.

LLDP or CDP are usually only present on network devices and only work on the link level, ie. between two devices. They work by announcement only and cannot be queried.

The most common way to translate an MAC address 'backwards' to an IP address is to query the DHCP server's lease table if that's the way addresses are allocated.

For static IP addresses, there's little else to do than run an ARP scan and filter by MAC address (unless you implement one of the mentioned protocols on your network). An ARP scan requires direct L2 connectivity to the segment in question since ARP uses broadcasts.