Harman Consumer Group — 9C:64:5E (MA-L)

Harman Consumer Group holds the MA-L block 9C:64:5E in the IEEE registry, with the registry address 8500 Balboa Blvd, Northridge, CA 91329, US. This is the consumer-audio arm of HARMAN International Industries — the division that ships JBL, Harman Kardon, AKG, Infinity, Mark Levinson, and Revel products — so a device presenting 9C:64:5E is, in practice, a consumer audio product: a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi portable speaker, wireless headphone or earbud, smart speaker, or home-audio component. The "Consumer Group" legal name is distinct from the other Harman registrants — Harman/Becker Automotive Systems, Harman Multimedia, Harman Specialty Group, and Harman Connected Services — each of which holds its own separate OUIs; the 9C:64:5E block belongs specifically to the consumer division. HARMAN itself has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics since the acquisition closed on 10 March 2017 (~USD 8 billion); that ownership change did not alter the OUI registration identity, which still reads "Harman Consumer Group." As with every IEEE OUI, no registration date is published: third-party MAC databases that show "first seen 2010-11-24 / last modified 2015-11-17" are recording their own crawl timestamps, not an IEEE fact. The practical lookup takeaway: 9C:64:5E on a home network is an expected, low-risk presence (a JBL/Harman Kardon/AKG speaker or headphone); the same OUI on a corporate VLAN that should carry no audio gear may warrant a shadow-IT look. The standing security concern is IoT patch hygiene — Harman consumer audio has a documented history of slow Bluetooth firmware updates.

IEEE assignment

9C:64:5E → Harman Consumer Group, registered Northridge, CA, US [Confirmed] — IEEE MA-L (enrichment/registries/oui.csv), maclookup.app/vendors/harman-consumer-group

Registry / block size

MA-L (24-bit OUI; ~16.77M addresses); single block found for this entity name [Confirmed] — IEEE MA-L, maclookup.app. NOTE: IEEE's public OUI data publishes NO assignment/registration date (oui.csv columns are only Registry, Assignment, Organization Name, Organization Address); the "first seen 2010-11-24 / last modified 2015-11-17" on third-party tools are database crawl artifacts, not IEEE facts.

HQ / country

8500 Balboa Blvd, Northridge, CA 91329, US (IEEE registry address) [Confirmed] — IEEE MA-L. A separate corporate address for "Harman Consumer, Inc." (400 Atlantic St Ste 1500, Stamford, CT 06901, US) appears in D&B but is NOT the IEEE-sourced address for this OUI. [Likely] — dnb.com

Parent company / status

HARMAN International Industries, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. since the acquisition closed 10 March 2017 (~USD 8B); active. The acquisition did not change the OUI registration identity. [Confirmed] — en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harman_International, harman.com/company

Device types

consumer audio electronics — Bluetooth portable speakers (e.g. JBL PartyBox, Harman Kardon Onyx Studio), wireless headphones/earbuds (JBL Live Buds, JBL Endurance Race, AKG), smart speakers, Hi-Fi components, home-audio systems. Brand portfolio: JBL, Harman Kardon, AKG, Infinity, Mark Levinson, Revel. Device-type attribution is inferred from the division name and brand portfolio; no specific model was corroborated to this exact OUI prefix in open sources. [Likely] — harman.com/consumer-audio, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harman_International

Network interface type

Unknown — Harman consumer devices use both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi; the specific radio technology for MACs from 9C:64:5E is not determinable from public OUI data alone. [Unknown]

Website

https://www.harman.com (corporate); consumer hub https://www.harmanaudio.com; brand sites https://www.jbl.com, https://www.harmankardon.com [Confirmed] — harman.com/consumer-audio

Related vendors

Harman/Becker Automotive Systems GmbH, Harman Multimedia, Harman Specialty Group, Harman Connected Services — all separate OUI registrants under the HARMAN umbrella.

Security context

(1) Airoha Bluetooth-chip CVEs (2025) — CVE-2025-20700/20701/20702 affect Airoha-chipset devices; JBL Live Buds 3 and JBL Endurance Race 2 confirmed vulnerable (Bluetooth proximity vector; eavesdropping / mic interception / command injection). JBL shipped firmware patches Jul–Aug 2025. These are chip-vendor bugs, not Harman-specific flaws. (2) KNOB flaw (CVE-2019-9506) — Harman Kardon Onyx Studio 6 confirmed still vulnerable post-disclosure, indicating slow legacy patch cadence. (3) Harman AMX (pro-AV division, NOT consumer) — hardcoded credentials + Linux kernel CVE-2024-1086; different product line from this OUI holder. [Confirmed] — ecoustics.com, cvedetails.com (vendor_id-15777), comparitech.com, harmankardon.com/security-policy.html

Analyst note

a 9C:64:5E device on a home or enterprise network is almost certainly a Harman consumer audio product (JBL / Harman Kardon / AKG speaker or headphone) — a low-risk, expected home-network presence; the primary concern is IoT patch hygiene given the documented slow Bluetooth update history. On a network that should carry no consumer audio gear, treat it as possible shadow IT. [Likely] — ecoustics.com, comparitech.com