First published: Tue Oct 13 2015(Updated: )
It was found that ntpd did not correctly implement the -g option: -g Normally, ntpd exits with a message to the system log if the offset exceeds the panic threshold, which is 1000 s by default. This option allows the time to be set to any value without restriction; however, this can happen only once. If the thresh‐ old is exceeded after that, ntpd will exit with a message to the system log. This option can be used with the -q and -x options. See the tinker command for other options. ntpd could actually step the clock multiple times by more than the panic threshold if its clock discipline doesn't have enough time to reach the sync state and stay there for at least one update. If a man-in-the-middle attacker can control the NTP traffic since ntpd was started (or maybe up to 15-30 minutes after that), they can prevent the client from reaching the sync state and force it to step its clock by any amount any number of times, which can be used by attackers to expire certificates, etc. This is contrary to what the documentation says. Normally, the assumption is that an MITM attacker can step the clock more than the panic threshold only once when ntpd starts and to make a larger adjustment the attacker has to divide it into multiple smaller steps, each taking 15 minutes, which is slow.
Credit: secalert@redhat.com
Affected Software | Affected Version | How to fix |
---|---|---|
redhat/ntp | <4.2.8 | 4.2.8 |
Fedoraproject Fedora | =21 | |
Fedoraproject Fedora | =22 | |
SUSE Linux Enterprise Debuginfo | =11-sp2 | |
SUSE Linux Enterprise Debuginfo | =11-sp3 | |
SUSE Linux Enterprise Debuginfo | =11-sp4 | |
openSUSE Leap | =42.1 | |
openSUSE openSUSE | =13.2 | |
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop | =12 | |
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop | =12-sp1 | |
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server | =10-sp4 | |
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server | =11-sp2 | |
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server | =11-sp3 | |
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server | =11-sp4 | |
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server | =12-sp1 | |
SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit | =12 | |
SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit | =12-sp1 | |
SUSE Manager | =2.1 | |
Suse Manager Proxy | =2.1 | |
SUSE OpenStack Cloud | =5 | |
SUSE SUSE Linux Enterprise Server | =12 | |
Redhat Enterprise Linux Desktop | =6.0 | |
Redhat Enterprise Linux Desktop | =7.0 | |
Redhat Enterprise Linux Hpc Node | =6.0 | |
Redhat Enterprise Linux Hpc Node | =7.0 | |
Redhat Enterprise Linux Hpc Node Eus | =7.1 | |
Redhat Enterprise Linux Server | =6.0 | |
Redhat Enterprise Linux Server | =7.0 | |
Redhat Enterprise Linux Server Eus | =6.7.z | |
Redhat Enterprise Linux Server Eus | =7.1 | |
Redhat Enterprise Linux Workstation | =6.0 | |
Redhat Enterprise Linux Workstation | =7.0 | |
Debian Debian Linux | =7.0 | |
Debian Debian Linux | =8.0 | |
Canonical Ubuntu Linux | =12.04 | |
Canonical Ubuntu Linux | =14.04 | |
Canonical Ubuntu Linux | =15.04 | |
Canonical Ubuntu Linux | =15.10 | |
NTP ntp | <=4.2.8 |
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