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Time Is Running Out for NTP

infoworld.com

11–20 of 34 posts

Re: Time Is Running Out for NTP

#11
> NTP is buried so deeply in the infrastructure that practically everyone reaps the project’s benefits for free.

The most common embedded NTP implementation is probably busybox, being used on Linux routers/modems/etc.. is actually based on OpenNTPD.

https://git.busybox.net/busybox/tree/networking/ntpd.c

Re: Time Is Running Out for NTP

#12

why dont dns servers provide this capability? seems like they are the most centralized of all the online services.

DNS is cached aggressively. As in, there is no "do not ever cache this" flag really. And even if there was, it there are multiple solutions actively ignoring the TTL hints. And caching is one thing you do not want when asking for time.

Re: Time Is Running Out for NTP

#13
oh, shut up.

it doesn't take 30 years to create a time sync protocol. it doesn't take 100 days to fix a malformed packet issue.

these are lazy money grubbers who take more time to rant about how no one gives them free money to fix mistakes they made themselves while being paid.

take responsibility. stop whining.

you're all idiots.

Re: Time Is Running Out for NTP

#14
post #5

Article doesn't bother to mention that there are completely different projects which implement NTP servers with varying levels of functionality (openntpd, chrony, ntpsec, ntimed). And while the pool.ntp.org system is a nice scheme, it's hardly a global necessity. You can fairly easily get a stratum 1 server going on your own infrastructure. IMHO, too much of NTP relies on GPS, but that's a separate matter.

[deleted]

Re: Time Is Running Out for NTP

#15
post #5

Article doesn't bother to mention that there are completely different projects which implement NTP servers with varying levels of functionality (openntpd, chrony, ntpsec, ntimed). And while the pool.ntp.org system is a nice scheme, it's hardly a global necessity. You can fairly easily get a stratum 1 server going on your own infrastructure. IMHO, too much of NTP relies on GPS, but that's a separate matter.

> IMHO, too much of NTP relies on GPS, but that's a separate matter.

I'm curious to know more. Can you please elaborate or point to some articles discussing this?

Re: Time Is Running Out for NTP

#16
post #15
post #5

Article doesn't bother to mention that there are completely different projects which implement NTP servers with varying levels of functionality (openntpd, chrony, ntpsec, ntimed). And while the pool.ntp.org system is a nice scheme, it's hardly a global necessity. You can fairly easily get a stratum 1 server going on your own infrastructure. IMHO, too much of NTP relies on GPS, but that's a separate matter.

> IMHO, too much of NTP relies on GPS, but that's a separate matter. I'm curious to know more. Can you please elaborate or point to some articles discussing this?

https://ntpserver.wordpress.com/2008/09/10/ntp-server-stratu...

http://www.ntp.org/ntpfaq/NTP-s-refclk.htm

TL;DR Most NTP networks are relying on GPS versus a high precision on-site time keeping device. Break GPS, and you break timekeeping for a wide swath of the worldwide NTP pool. But thems the breaks when you can get access to atomic clocks in space (each GPS satellite carries an atomic clock on board) just by sticking an antenna out the window.

If you require precision time for critical business operations (financial transactions, global database operations), you should be running a precision time source locally at your datacenter; for under $20 an attacker could deny you GPS timing.

Re: Time Is Running Out for NTP

#18
post #4

I thought NTP was a protocol, not a piece of software. Is the article conflating them, or is there only one single implementation of it that everyone relies upon?

There is NTP the protocol[1], and there is NTP the implementation[2].

While the implementation is popular, there are alternatives. There is also OpenNTPd, chrony and ntimed for instance.

There are also alternatives to the NTP protocol too, such as PTP and SNTP.

[1]https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc5905.txt [2]http://www.ntp.org/

Re: Time Is Running Out for NTP

#19
post #7

Classic NTP is hardly the only game in town. For example, see the NTPsec work in progress: https://www.ntpsec.org/ which I'll probably transition to someday, maybe even get an el-cheapo GPS receiver now that I'm not effectively living in a basement. And I've personally be using chrony for a while, although my needs are significantly less than whatever level of accuracy it provides. There are some other clients out th…

My biggest issue with NTP is little control over who runs the servers. Unlike the CA system that has checks in place against bad actors, practically anyone can run an NTP pool.

It was discovered a while ago for example that some part of the Linux default NTP servers are run by shodan. So when your machine gets the time it lets shodan know you've got a server running so they can port scan you.

It would be stupid not to run a bunch of NTP servers if you wanted a to run a bot net. A free list of every running Linux server and countless IoT devices! Without having to actively scan IP space at all

Re: Time Is Running Out for NTP

#20
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> IMHO, too much of NTP relies on GPS, but that's a separate matter. I'm curious to know more. Can you please elaborate or point to some articles discussing this?

https://ntpserver.wordpress.com/2008/09/10/ntp-server-stratu... http://www.ntp.org/ntpfaq/NTP-s-refclk.htm TL;DR Most NTP networks are relying on GPS versus a high precision on-site time keeping device. Break GPS, and you break timekeeping for a wide swath of the worldwide NTP pool. But thems the breaks when you can get access to atomic clocks in space (each GPS satellite carries an atomic clock on board) just by sti…

To add to this, you can buy GPS time source dongles really cheap and in Linux it's not too hard to run one as a parallel/backup time source.

Especially when using distributed databases where write priority is determined by timestamp, someone wrecking havoc with your time source could bring down the database

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