Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Excessive load on NTP servers

news.ntppool.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 157 posts

Re: Excessive load on NTP servers

#41

Post by ayuvar »

skeptic2718 wrote: post #35
coleca wrote: post #30

FWIW my teenage daughter has been complaining about this latest Snapchat update for iOS the past couple days. It constantly crashes and causes the phone to reboot itself. Looking at Twitter, there's tons and tons of people reporting the same issue, so it seems pretty widespread. Wonder if it's related to this NTP issue.

Can apps cause iOS to reboot ? That's a bit shocking. I don't own an iPhone.

It's not isolated to iOS. Snapchat does something funky in userland.

I think on the Nexus 4, Snapchat still ships with a warning that it doesn't work properly.

Mine would reboot about every second time I took a picture.

Re: Excessive load on NTP servers

#42

Post by Godel_unicode »

Fnoord wrote: post #29
acqq wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They didn't have to use ntp.org pool at all. They obviously wanted to check if somebody changed the time on the phone and to still use "the internet time." And for that contacting one Apple's server (time.apple.com) were enough. It seems that the iOS library author "helpfully" provided the default of contacting 30 servers from the ntp.org pool.

Is it possible to spoof the reply? Or block the request? This smells like security by obscurity to me.

The short answer is yes. NTP operates on UDP/123 and isn't authenticated.

Re: Excessive load on NTP servers

#43

Post by blowski »

skeptic2718 wrote: post #35
coleca wrote: post #30

FWIW my teenage daughter has been complaining about this latest Snapchat update for iOS the past couple days. It constantly crashes and causes the phone to reboot itself. Looking at Twitter, there's tons and tons of people reporting the same issue, so it seems pretty widespread. Wonder if it's related to this NTP issue.

Can apps cause iOS to reboot ? That's a bit shocking. I don't own an iPhone.

Just occasionally yes, but it has happened very rarely to me (an iPhone user since 2009). I assume it's a bug in iOS combined with a bug in the app.

Re: Excessive load on NTP servers

#44

Post by unethical_ban »

Declanomous wrote: post #12

For whatever reason, ntppool.org is blocked at my work. And of course, you don't get the page that states why when the website is served via https. Not that I need to see the page to know it was either blocked for "hacking" or "entertainment", and I'm guessing it's not entertainment. Edit: This probably explains why our clocks have been off by 45 minutes since Monday. I guess it will be entertaining to see how long i…

I don't know why an org would be blocking NTP. But ideally, IT would run their own NTP service (if the shop is big enough), block NTP to any other org, and sync their server with upstream. Similar to package management, DNS, etc. - self-host it all.

Re: Excessive load on NTP servers

#45

Post by anc84 »

codazoda wrote: post #25
pooper wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Apple should require app vendors to just submit source code and build instructions and have Apple just build it. It'd be harder to pull off on Google Play Store but I think Apple could make this happen if they wanted to.

As a developer, I'd rather they build it and sign it for me. The key signing stuff always seems difficult.

As a user, I'd rather you build your code and sign it for me. Enabling a third-party to alter your programs taking away the trust I would have in you.

Re: Excessive load on NTP servers

#46

Post by jafingi »

skeptic2718 wrote: post #35
coleca wrote: post #30

FWIW my teenage daughter has been complaining about this latest Snapchat update for iOS the past couple days. It constantly crashes and causes the phone to reboot itself. Looking at Twitter, there's tons and tons of people reporting the same issue, so it seems pretty widespread. Wonder if it's related to this NTP issue.

Can apps cause iOS to reboot ? That's a bit shocking. I don't own an iPhone.

It doesn't reboot. It resprings. Big difference.

Re: Excessive load on NTP servers

#48

Post by setq »

Declanomous wrote: post #32
Twirrim wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I guess it will be entertaining to see how long it takes for IT to figure this one out. Why not just tell them. What have you got to lose? Hell, blame your charitable spirit on the holiday season if you must.

I got told off for diagnosing issues in the past. The IT director is a megalomaniac and interprets it as a challenge to his power. The only time I offer suggestions now is when one of his employees specifically asks me for help. Edit: I realize "got told off" didn't really capture what happened. I came in early one day and noticed we were having a dns issue. I manually refreshed my DNS cache and it started to work. I…

This sort of stuff fucks me off.

I got into trouble at university when I was running a CAD session on X (Cadence VLSI design FTW, not). Some asshat had telnetted in and was trying to brute force root because it was a faster machine than the crappy sun4's dotted around. It was spewing all over the framebuffer. So I logged into another box and sent him an email saying pack it in and that I was trying to work and that I'd report him for AUP violation to the Sysops.

He complained (?!!!) and the next thing I was in front of a tutor getting a bollocking for it. No explanation was allowed to be returned or appealed, permanent black mark on my record.

And that's when I learned about university politics, gave them the fat middle finger and got a job and left a massive 11 page long diatribe about the charlatans at the place.

Re: Excessive load on NTP servers

#49

Post by ansible »

ayuvar wrote: post #41
skeptic2718 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can apps cause iOS to reboot ? That's a bit shocking. I don't own an iPhone.

It's not isolated to iOS. Snapchat does something funky in userland. I think on the Nexus 4, Snapchat still ships with a warning that it doesn't work properly. Mine would reboot about every second time I took a picture.

I haven't investigated the issue, but I've heard that it was indeed a bug with the Nexus 4 drivers that caused the crash.

Still, I've got to wonder, what are they doing that's so different than other camera apps that seem to work fine?

Re: Excessive load on NTP servers

#50

Post by TeMPOraL »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #34
acqq wrote: post #8

According to the forum, the pattern matched this third-party library: https://github.com/jbenet/ios-ntp Specifically, all the servers(!) from here are contacted: https://github.com/jbenet/ios-ntp/blob/master/ios-ntp-lib/Ne... Note that the library author wrote: "ios-ntp is often (mostly?) used to make sure someone hasn't fiddled with the system clock. The complications involved in using multiple servers and averaging…

This is a really weird comment format. It almost suggests a lack of syntax highlighting. /*┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Prepare a sort-descriptor to sort associations based on their dispersion, and then create an │ │ empty array for associations to fill .. │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────…

Nope, I guess it's just that the developer really likes comment boxes. See e.g. here:

https://github.com/jbenet/ios-ntp/blob/master/ios-ntp-lib/Ne...

for use of two different styles of boxes, + some additional typographic experiments.

I actually kind of like it. Not enough to start using it yet, but then again, in Lisp code I make a judicious use[0] of ^L characters and form-feed-mode. Form feed character seems to be a forgotten but pretty neat invention.

[0] - http://i.imgur.com/5pnDZmJ.png

Post reply on HN