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Multiple vulnerabilities released in NTP

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Re: Multiple vulnerabilities released in NTP

#21
post #12
post #3

Might want to check out OpenBSD's OpenNTPD: http://www.openntpd.org/

The portable version (for Linux and other OSes) is unmaintained and the last release is from 2006. I don't use it on that basis alone. Also, the last release of non-portable openntpd is from 2009.

There's little point to a non-portable release. They were made when ntpd was developing faster than OpenBSD, but it's not like OpenBSD stopped making releases in 2009.

Re: Multiple vulnerabilities released in NTP

#22
post #14
post #3

Might want to check out OpenBSD's OpenNTPD: http://www.openntpd.org/

There is also systemd-timesyncd and Chrony.

Fedora (or GNOME 3?) uses Chrony by default due to better power management. I assume the same is true for most other distributions.

Re: Multiple vulnerabilities released in NTP

#24
post #6

NTP is one of those old school Internet protocols that was developed in "a more civilized age". The reference implementation "growed like Topsy" in an academic setting. So it's not surprising that it has serious vulnerabilities. Many years ago OpenBSD threw up their hands and just decided to roll their own, named OpenNTPD. It's not nearly as full featured as the reference implementation, but it works fine for most pe…

NTP's author, Eric Fair, is actually the son of the founder of Fair-Issac. Very smart cat, but this was all written so, so long ago it was bound to be exploitable sooner or later.

NTP's "author" --where author is defined as author of the original RFC (958), every subsequent RFC (1305, 5905, etc) and reference implementation-- is Prof. David Mills. Prof. Mills is one of the unsung heros of the internet.

Re: Multiple vulnerabilities released in NTP

#25
PHK has been working on a rewrite of ntp sponsored by the Linux Foundation. He has posted a couple of entries about his progress so far: http://phk.freebsd.dk/time/20140926.html

In the meantime Miroslav's chrony is a good alternative: http://chrony.tuxfamily.org/

If you are looking for the fixed version you can grab 4.2.8 from archive.ntp.org which is still responding to requests: http://archive.ntp.org/ntp4/ntp-4.2/ntp-4.2.8.tar.gz

Re: Multiple vulnerabilities released in NTP

#27
The best solution is not to use ntp anyway. It's an unencrypted, unauthenticated protocol vulnerable to Man in the Middle attacks. There was a pretty neat attack presented at BH Europe circumventing HSTS with a MitM-attack on NTP.

Better just replace it with tlsdate.

Re: Multiple vulnerabilities released in NTP

#28
post #27

The best solution is not to use ntp anyway. It's an unencrypted, unauthenticated protocol vulnerable to Man in the Middle attacks. There was a pretty neat attack presented at BH Europe circumventing HSTS with a MitM-attack on NTP. Better just replace it with tlsdate.

I don't understand what attacks are possible... making an enemy late for work when his alarm goes off several hours late?

Or can you circumvent certificate revocations this way?

Re: Multiple vulnerabilities released in NTP

#29
post #27

The best solution is not to use ntp anyway. It's an unencrypted, unauthenticated protocol vulnerable to Man in the Middle attacks. There was a pretty neat attack presented at BH Europe circumventing HSTS with a MitM-attack on NTP. Better just replace it with tlsdate.

I don't understand what attacks are possible... making an enemy late for work when his alarm goes off several hours late? Or can you circumvent certificate revocations this way?

There is still a lot of crypto out there that works off of using the current timestamp as a seed.

Being able to control he time could theoretically let you control any PRNGs that rely on it.

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