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Internet Engineering Task Force M. Lichvar | |
Internet-Draft Red Hat | |
Updates: 5905 (if approved) A. Malhotra | |
Intended status: Standards Track Boston University | |
Expires: January 2, 2022 Jul 1, 2021 | |
NTP Interleaved Modes | |
draft-ietf-ntp-interleaved-modes-06 | |
Abstract | |
This document extends the specification of Network Time Protocol | |
(NTP) version 4 in RFC 5905 with special modes called the NTP | |
interleaved modes, that enable NTP servers to provide their clients | |
and peers with more accurate transmit timestamps that are available | |
only after transmitting NTP packets. More specifically, this | |
document describes three modes: interleaved client/server, | |
interleaved symmetric, and interleaved broadcast. | |
Status of This Memo | |
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the | |
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. | |
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering | |
Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute | |
working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet- | |
Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/. | |
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months | |
and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any | |
time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference | |
material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." | |
This Internet-Draft will expire on January 2, 2022. | |
Copyright Notice | |
Copyright (c) 2021 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the | |
document authors. All rights reserved. | |
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal | |
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents | |
(https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of | |
publication of this document. Please review these documents | |
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect | |
to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must | |
include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of | |
the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as | |
described in the Simplified BSD License. | |
Table of Contents | |
1. Introduction | |
1.1. Requirements Language | |
2. Interleaved Client/server mode | |
3. Interleaved Symmetric mode | |
4. Interleaved Broadcast mode | |
5. Protocol Failures | |
6. Security Considerations | |
7. IANA Considerations | |
8. Acknowledgements | |
9. References | |
9.1. Normative References | |
9.2. Informative References | |
9.3. URIs | |
Authors' Addresses | |
1. Introduction | |
RFC 5905 [RFC5905] describes the operations of NTPv4 in a client/ | |
server, symmetric, and broadcast mode. The transmit and receive | |
timestamps are two of the four timestamps included in every NTPv4 | |
packet used for time synchronization. | |
For a highly accurate and stable synchronization, the transmit and | |
receive timestamp should be captured close to the beginning of the | |
actual transmission and the end of the reception respectively. An | |
asymmetry in the timestamping causes the offset measured by NTP to | |
have an error. | |
There are at least four options where a timestamp of an NTP packet | |
may be captured with a software NTP implementation running on a | |
general-purpose operating system: | |
1. User space (software) | |
2. Network device driver or kernel (software) | |
3. Data link layer (hardware - MAC chip) | |
4. Physical layer (hardware - PHY chip) | |
Software timestamps captured in user space in the NTP implementation | |
itself are least accurate. They do not include system calls used for | |
sending and receiving packets, processing and queuing delays in the | |
system, network device drivers, and hardware. Hardware timestamps | |
captured at the physical layer are most accurate. | |
A transmit timestamp captured in the driver or hardware is more | |
accurate than the user-space timestamp, but it is available to the | |
NTP implementation only after it sent the packet using a system call. | |
The timestamp cannot be included in the packet itself unless the | |
driver or hardware supports NTP and can modify the packet before or | |
during the actual transmission. | |
The protocol described in RFC 5905 does not specify any mechanism for | |
a server to provide its clients and peers with a more accurate | |
transmit timestamp that is known only after the transmission. A | |
packet that strictly follows RFC 5905, i.e. it contains a transmit | |
timestamp corresponding to the packet itself, is said to be in basic | |
mode. | |
Different mechanisms could be used to exchange timestamps known after | |
the transmission. The server could respond to each request with two | |
packets. The second packet would contain the transmit timestamp | |
corresponding to the first packet. However, such a protocol would | |
enable a traffic amplification attack, or it would use packets with | |
an asymmetric length, which would cause an asymmetry in the network | |
delay and an error in the measured offset. | |
This document describes an interleaved client/server, interleaved | |
symmetric, and interleaved broadcast mode. In these modes, the | |
server sends a packet which contains a transmit timestamp | |
corresponding to the transmission of the previous packet that was | |
sent to the client or peer. This transmit timestamp can be captured | |
in any software or hardware component involved in the transmission of | |
the packet. Both servers and clients/peers are required to keep some | |
state specific to the interleaved mode. | |
An NTPv4 implementation that supports the client/server and broadcast | |
interleaved modes interoperates with NTPv4 implementations without | |
this capability. A peer using the symmetric interleaved mode does | |
not fully interoperate with a peer which does not support it. The | |
mode needs to be configured specifically for each symmetric | |
association. | |
The interleaved modes do not change the NTP packet header format and | |
do not use new extension fields. The negotiation is implicit. The | |
protocol is extended with new values that can be assigned to the | |
origin and transmit timestamp. Servers and peers check the origin | |
timestamp to detect requests conforming to the interleaved mode. A | |
response can be valid only in one mode. If a client or peer that | |
does not support interleaved mode received a response conforming to | |
the interleaved mode, it would be rejected as bogus. | |
An explicit negotiation would require a new extension field. RFC | |
5905 does not specify how servers should handle requests with an | |
unknown extension field. The original use of extension fields was | |
authentication with Autokey [RFC5906], which cannot be negotiated. | |
Some existing implementations do not respond to requests with unknown | |
extension fields. This behavior would prevent clients from reliably | |
detecting support for the interleaved mode. | |
Requests and responses cannot always be formed in interleaved mode. | |
It cannot be used exclusively. Servers, clients, and peers that | |
support the interleaved mode need to support also the basic mode. | |
This document assumes familiarity with RFC 5905. | |
1.1. Requirements Language | |
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", | |
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and | |
"OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP | |
14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all | |
capitals, as shown here. | |
2. Interleaved Client/server mode | |
The interleaved client/server mode is similar to the basic client/ | |
server mode. The difference between the two modes is in the values | |
saved to the origin and transmit timestamp fields. | |
The origin timestamp is a cookie which is used to detect that a | |
received packet is a response to the last packet sent in the other | |
direction of the association. It is a copy of one of the timestamps | |
from the packet to which it is responding, or zero if it is not a | |
response. Servers following RFC 5905 ignore the origin timestamp in | |
client requests. A server response which does not have a matching | |
origin timestamp is called bogus. | |
A client request in the basic mode has an origin timestamp equal to | |
the transmit timestamp from the last valid server response, or is | |
zero (which indicates the first request of the association). A | |
server response in the basic mode has an origin timestamp equal to | |
the transmit timestamp from the client request. The transmit | |
timestamp in the response corresponds to the transmission of the | |
response in which the timestamp is contained. | |
A client request in the interleaved mode has an origin timestamp | |
equal to the receive timestamp from the last valid server response. | |
A server response in the interleaved mode has an origin timestamp | |
equal to the receive timestamp from the client request. The transmit | |
timestamp in the response corresponds to the transmission of the | |
previous response which had the receive timestamp equal to the origin | |
timestamp from the request. | |
A server which supports the interleaved mode needs to save pairs of | |
local receive and transmit timestamps. The server SHOULD discard old | |
timestamps to limit the amount of memory needed to support clients | |
using the interleaved mode. The server MAY separate the timestamps | |
by IP addresses, but it SHOULD NOT separate them by port numbers to | |
support clients that change their port between requests, as | |
recommended in RFC 9109 [RFC9109]. | |
The server MAY restrict the interleaved mode to specific IP addresses | |
and/or authenticated clients. | |
Both servers and clients that support the interleaved mode MUST NOT | |
send a packet that has a transmit timestamp equal to the receive | |
timestamp in order to reliably detect whether received packets | |
conform to the interleaved mode. One way to ensure that is to | |
increment the transmit timestamp by 1 unit (i.e. about 1/4 of a | |
nanosecond) if the two timestamps are equal, or a new timestamp can | |
be generated. | |
The transmit and receive timestamps in server responses need to be | |
unique to prevent two different clients from sending requests with | |
the same origin timestamp and the server responding in the | |
interleaved mode with an incorrect transmit timestamp. If the | |
timestamps are not guaranteed to be monotonically increasing, the | |
server SHOULD check that the transmit and receive timestamps are not | |
already saved as a receive timestamp of a previous request (from the | |
same IP address if the server separates timestamps by addresses), and | |
generate a new timestamp if necessary. | |
When the server receives a request from a client, it SHOULD respond | |
in the interleaved mode if the following conditions are met: | |
1. The request does not have a receive timestamp equal to the | |
transmit timestamp. | |
2. The origin timestamp from the request matches the local receive | |
timestamp of a previous request that the server has saved (for | |
the IP address if it separates timestamps by addresses). | |
A response in the interleaved mode MUST contain the transmit | |
timestamp of the response which contained the receive timestamp | |
matching the origin timestamp from the request. The server SHOULD | |
drop the timestamps after sending the response. The receive | |
timestamp MUST NOT be used again to detect a request conforming to | |
the interleaved mode. | |
If the conditions are not met (i.e. the request is not detected to | |
conform to the interleaved mode), the server MUST NOT respond in the | |
interleaved mode. The server MAY always respond in the basic mode. | |
In any case, the server SHOULD save the new receive and transmit | |
timestamps. | |
The first request from a client is always in the basic mode and so is | |
the server response. It has a zero origin timestamp and zero receive | |
timestamp. Only when the client receives a valid response from the | |
server, it will be able to send a request in the interleaved mode. | |
The protocol recovers from packet loss. When a client request or | |
server response is lost, the client will use the same origin | |
timestamp in the next request. The server can respond in the | |
interleaved mode if it still has the timestamps corresponding to the | |
origin timestamp. If the server already responded to the timestamp | |
in the interleaved mode, or it had to drop the timestamps for other | |
reasons, it will respond in the basic mode and save new timestamps, | |
which will enable an interleaved response to the subsequent request. | |
The client SHOULD limit the number of requests in the interleaved | |
mode between server responses to prevent processing of very old | |
timestamps in case a large number of consecutive requests is lost. | |
An example of packets in a client/server exchange using the | |
interleaved mode is shown in Figure 1. The packets in the basic and | |
interleaved mode are indicated with B and I respectively. The | |
timestamps t1~, t3~ and t11~ point to the same transmissions as t1, | |
t3 and t11, but they may be less accurate. The first exchange is in | |
the basic mode followed by a second exchange in the interleaved mode. | |
For the third exchange, the client request is in the interleaved | |
mode, but the server response is in the basic mode, because the | |
server did not have the pair of timestamps t6 and t7 (e.g. they were | |
dropped to save timestamps for other clients using the interleaved | |
mode). | |
Server t2 t3 t6 t7 t10 t11 | |
-----+----+----------------+----+----------------+----+----- | |
/ \ / \ / \ | |
Client / \ / \ / \ | |
--+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+-- | |
t1 t4 t5 t8 t9 t12 | |
Mode: B B I I I B | |
+----+ +----+ +----+ +----+ +----+ +----+ | |
Org | 0 | | t1~| | t2 | | t4 | | t6 | | t5 | | |
Rx | 0 | | t2 | | t4 | | t6 | | t8 | |t10 | | |
Tx | t1~| | t3~| | t1 | | t3 | | t5 | |t11~| | |
+----+ +----+ +----+ +----+ +----+ +----+ | |
Figure 1: Packet timestamps in interleaved client/server mode | |
When the client receives a response from the server, it performs the | |
tests described in RFC 5905. Two of the tests are modified for the | |
interleaved mode: | |
1. The check for duplicate packets SHOULD compare both receive and | |
transmit timestamps in order to not drop a valid response in the | |
interleaved mode if it follows a response in the basic mode and | |
they contain the same transmit timestamp. | |
2. The check for bogus packets SHOULD compare the origin timestamp | |
with both transmit and receive timestamps from the request. If | |
the origin timestamp is equal to the transmit timestamp, the | |
response is in the basic mode. If the origin timestamp is equal | |
to the receive timestamp, the response is in the interleaved | |
mode. | |
The client SHOULD NOT update its NTP state when an invalid response | |
is received, to not lose the timestamps which will be needed to | |
complete a measurement when the subsequent response in the | |
interleaved mode is received. | |
If the packet passed the tests and conforms to the interleaved mode, | |
the client can compute the offset and delay using the formulas from | |
RFC 5905 and one of two different sets of timestamps. The first set | |
is RECOMMENDED for clients that filter measurements based on the | |
delay. The corresponding timestamps from Figure 1 are written in | |
parentheses. | |
T1 - local transmit timestamp of the previous request (t1) | |
T2 - remote receive timestamp from the previous response (t2) | |
T3 - remote transmit timestamp from the latest response (t3) | |
T4 - local receive timestamp of the previous response (t4) | |
The second set gives a more accurate measurement of the current | |
offset, but the delay is much more sensitive to a frequency error | |
between the server and client due to a much longer interval between | |
T1 and T4. | |
T1 - local transmit timestamp of the latest request (t5) | |
T2 - remote receive timestamp from the latest response (t6) | |
T3 - remote transmit timestamp from the latest response (t3) | |
T4 - local receive timestamp of the previous response (t4) | |
Clients MAY filter measurements based on the mode. The maximum | |
number of dropped measurements in the basic mode SHOULD be limited in | |
case the server does not support or is not able to respond in the | |
interleaved mode. Clients that filter measurements based on the | |
delay will implicitly prefer measurements in the interleaved mode | |
over the basic mode, because they have a shorter delay due to a more | |
accurate transmit timestamp (T3). | |
The server MAY limit saving of the receive and transmit timestamps to | |
requests which have an origin timestamp specific to the interleaved | |
mode in order to not waste resources on clients using the basic mode. | |
Such an optimization will delay the first interleaved response of the | |
server to a client by one exchange. | |
A check for a non-zero origin timestamp works with SNTP clients that | |
always set the timestamp to zero and clients that implement NTP data | |
minimization [I-D.ietf-ntp-data-minimization]. From the server's | |
point of view, such clients start a new association with each | |
request. | |
To avoid searching the saved receive timestamps for non-zero origin | |
timestamps from requests conforming to the basic mode, the server can | |
encode in low-order bits of the receive and transmit timestamps below | |
precision of the clock a flag indicating whether the timestamp is a | |
receive timestamp. If the server receives a request with a non-zero | |
origin timestamp which does not indicate it is a receive timestamp of | |
the server, the request does not conform to the interleaved mode and | |
it is not necessary to perform the search and/or save the new receive | |
and transmit timestamp. | |
3. Interleaved Symmetric mode | |
The interleaved symmetric mode uses the same principles as the | |
interleaved client/server mode. A packet in the interleaved | |
symmetric mode has a transmit timestamp which corresponds to the | |
transmission of the previous packet sent to the peer and an origin | |
timestamp equal to the receive timestamp from the last packet | |
received from the peer. | |
To enable synchronization in both directions of a symmetric | |
association, both peers need to support the interleaved mode. For | |
this reason, it SHOULD be disabled by default and enabled with an | |
option in the configuration of the active side of the association. | |
In order to prevent the peer from matching the transmit timestamp | |
with an incorrect packet when the peers' transmissions do not | |
alternate (e.g. they use different polling intervals) and a previous | |
packet was lost, the use of the interleaved mode in symmetric | |
associations requires additional restrictions. | |
Peers which have an association need to count valid packets received | |
between their transmissions to determine in which mode a packet | |
should be formed. A valid packet in this context is a packet which | |
passed all NTP tests for duplicate, replayed, bogus, and | |
unauthenticated packets. Other received packets may update the NTP | |
state to allow the (re)initialization of the association, but they do | |
not change the selection of the mode. | |
A peer A SHOULD send a peer B a packet in the interleaved mode only | |
when all of the following conditions are met: | |
1. The peer A has an active association with the peer B which was | |
specified with the option enabling the interleaved mode, OR the | |
peer A received at least one valid packet in the interleaved mode | |
from the peer B. | |
2. The peer A did not send a packet to the peer B since it received | |
the last valid packet from the peer B. | |
3. The previous packet that the peer A sent to the peer B was the | |
only response to a packet received from the peer B. | |
The first condition is needed for compatibility with implementations | |
that do not support or are not configured for the interleaved mode. | |
The other conditions prevent a missing response from causing a | |
mismatch between the remote transmit (T2) and local receive timestamp | |
(T3), which would cause a large error in the measured offset and | |
delay. | |
An example of packets exchanged in a symmetric association is shown | |
in Figure 2. The minimum polling interval of the peer A is twice as | |
long as the maximum polling interval of the peer B. The first | |
packets sent by the peers are in the basic mode. The second and | |
third packet sent by the peer A is in the interleaved mode. The | |
second packet sent by the peer B is in the interleaved mode, but the | |
following packets sent by the peer B are in the basic mode, because | |
multiple responses are sent per request. | |
Peer A t2 t3 t6 t8 t9 t12 t14 t15 | |
-----+--+--------+-----------+--+--------+-----------+--+----- | |
/ \ / / \ / / \ | |
Peer B / \ / / \ / / \ | |
--+--------+--+-----------+--------+--+-----------+--------+-- | |
t1 t4 t5 t7 t10 t11 t13 t16 | |
Mode: B B I B I B B I | |
+----+ +----+ +----+ +----+ +----+ +----+ +----+ +----+ | |
Org | 0 | | t1~| | t2 | | t3~| | t4 | | t3 | | t3 | |t10 | | |
Rx | 0 | | t2 | | t4 | | t4 | | t8 | |t10 | |t10 | |t14 | | |
Tx | t1~| | t3~| | t1 | | t7~| | t3 | |t11~| |t13~| | t9 | | |
+----+ +----+ +----+ +----+ +----+ +----+ +----+ +----+ | |
Figure 2: Packet timestamps in interleaved symmetric mode | |
If the peer A has no association with the peer B and it responds with | |
symmetric passive packets, it does not need to count the packets in | |
order to meet the restrictions, because each request has at most one | |
response. The peer SHOULD process the requests in the same way as a | |
server which supports the interleaved client/server mode. It MUST | |
NOT respond in the interleaved mode if the request was not in the | |
interleaved mode. | |
The peers SHOULD compute the offset and delay using one of the two | |
sets of timestamps specified in the client/server section. They MAY | |
switch between them to minimize the interval between T1 and T4 in | |
order to reduce the error in the measured delay. | |
4. Interleaved Broadcast mode | |
A packet in the interleaved broadcast mode contains two transmit | |
timestamps. One corresponds to the packet itself and is saved in the | |
transmit timestamp field. The other corresponds to the previous | |
packet and is saved in the origin timestamp field. The packet is | |
compatible with the basic mode, which uses a zero origin timestamp. | |
An example of packets sent in the broadcast mode is shown in | |
Figure 3. | |
Server t1 t3 t5 t7 | |
------+------------+------------+------------+--------- | |
\ \ \ \ | |
Client \ \ \ \ | |
---------+------------+------------+------------+------ | |
t2 t4 t6 t8 | |
Mode: B I I I | |
+----+ +----+ +----+ +----+ | |
Org | 0 | | t1 | | t3 | | t5 | | |
Rx | 0 | | 0 | | 0 | | 0 | | |
Tx | t1~| | t3~| | t5~| | t7~| | |
+----+ +----+ +----+ +----+ | |
Figure 3: Packet timestamps in interleaved broadcast mode | |
A client which does not support the interleaved mode ignores the | |
origin timestamp and processes all packets as if they were in the | |
basic mode. | |
A client which supports the interleaved mode SHOULD check if the | |
origin timestamp is not zero to detect packets in the interleaved | |
mode. The client SHOULD also compare the origin timestamp with the | |
transmit timestamp from the previous packet to detect lost packets. | |
If the difference is larger than a specified maximum (e.g. 1 second), | |
the packet SHOULD NOT be used for synchronization in the interleaved | |
mode. | |
The client SHOULD compute the offset using the origin timestamp from | |
the received packet and the local receive timestamp of the previous | |
packet. If the client needs to measure the network delay, it SHOULD | |
use the interleaved client/server mode. | |
5. Protocol Failures | |
An incorrect client implementation of the basic mode (RFC 5905) can | |
work reliably with servers that implement only the basic mode, but | |
the protocol can fail intermittently with servers that implement the | |
interleaved mode. | |
If the client sets the origin timestamp to other values than the | |
transmit timestamp from the last valid server response, or zero, the | |
origin timestamp can match a receive timestamp of a previous server | |
response (possibly to a different client), causing an unexpected | |
interleaved response. The client is expected to drop the response as | |
bogus. If it did not check for bogus packets, it would be vulnerable | |
to off-path attacks. | |
If the client set the origin timestamp to a constant non-zero value, | |
this mismatch would be expected to happen once per the NTP era (about | |
136 years) if the NTP server was responding at the maximum rate | |
needed to go through all timestamp values (about 2 billion responses | |
per second). With lower rates of requests the chance of hitting a | |
server timestamp decreases proportionally. | |
The worst case of this failure would be a client that specifically | |
sets the origin timestamp to the server's receive timestamp, i.e. the | |
client accidentally implemented the interleaved mode, but it does not | |
accept interleaved responses. This client would still be able to | |
synchronize its clock. It would drop interleaved responses as bogus | |
and set the origin timestamp to the receive timestamp from the last | |
valid response in the basic mode. As servers are required to not | |
respond twice to the same origin timestamp in the interleaved mode, | |
at least every other response would be in the basic mode and accepted | |
by the client. | |
Intermittent protocol failures can be caused also by an incorrect | |
server implementation of the interleaved mode. A server which does | |
not ensure the receive and transmit timestamps in its responses are | |
unique in a sufficiently long interval can misinterpret requests | |
formed correctly in the basic mode as interleaved and respond in the | |
interleaved mode. The response would be dropped by the client as | |
bogus. | |
A duplicated server receive timestamp can cause an expected | |
interleaved response to contain a transmit timestamp which does not | |
correspond to the transmission of the previous response from which | |
the client copied the receive timestamp to the origin timestamp in | |
the request, but a different response which contained the same | |
receive timestamp. The response would be accepted by the client with | |
a small error in the transmit timestamp equal to the difference | |
between the transmit timestamps of the two different responses. As | |
the two requests to which the responses responded were received at | |
the same time (according to the server's clock), the two | |
transmissions would be expected to be close to each other and the | |
difference between them would be comparable to the error a basic | |
response normally has in its transmit timestamp. | |
One reason for a duplicated server timestamp can be a large backward | |
step of the server's clock. If the timestamps the server has saved | |
do not fully cover the second pass of the clock over the repeated | |
interval, two requests received in different passes of the clock can | |
get the same receive timestamp. The client which made the first | |
request can get the transmit timestamp corresponding to the | |
transmission of the second response. From the server's point of | |
view, the error of the transmit timestamp would be still small, but | |
from the client's point of view the server already failed when it | |
made the step as it was serving wrong time before or after the step | |
with a much larger error than the error caused by the protocol | |
failure. | |
6. Security Considerations | |
The security considerations of time protocols in general are | |
discussed in RFC 7384 [RFC7384], and specifically the security | |
considerations of NTP are discussed in RFC 5905. | |
Security issues that apply to the basic modes apply also to the | |
interleaved modes. They are described in The Security of NTP's | |
Datagram Protocol [SECNTP]. | |
Clients and peers SHOULD NOT leak the receive timestamp in packets | |
sent to other peers or clients (e.g. as a reference timestamp) to | |
prevent off-path attackers from easily getting the origin timestamp | |
needed to make a valid response in the interleaved mode. | |
Clients using the interleaved mode SHOULD randomize all bits of both | |
receive and transmit timestamps, as recommended for the transmit | |
timestamp in the NTP client data minimization | |
[I-D.ietf-ntp-data-minimization], to make it more difficult for off- | |
path attackers to guess the origin timestamp in the server response. | |
The client data minimization cannot be fully implemented in the | |
interleaved mode. The origin timestamp cannot be zeroed out, which | |
makes the clients more vulnerable to tracking as they move between | |
networks. | |
Attackers can force the server to drop its timestamps in order to | |
prevent clients from getting an interleaved response. They can send | |
a large number of requests, send requests with a spoofed source | |
address, or replay an authenticated request if the interleaved mode | |
is enabled only for authenticated clients. Clients SHOULD NOT rely | |
on servers to be able to respond in the interleaved mode. | |
Protecting symmetric associations in the interleaved mode against | |
replay attacks is even more difficult than in the basic mode. In | |
both modes, the NTP state needs to be protected between the reception | |
of the last non-replayed response and transmission of the next | |
request in order for the request to contain the origin timestamp | |
expected by the peer. The difference is in the timestamps needed to | |
complete a measurement. In the basic mode only one valid response is | |
needed at a time and it is used as soon as it is received, but the | |
interleaved mode needs two consecutive valid responses. The NTP | |
state needs to be protected all the time to not lose the timestamps | |
which are needed to complete the measurement when the second response | |
is received. | |
7. IANA Considerations | |
This memo includes no request to IANA. | |
8. Acknowledgements | |
The interleaved modes described in this document are based on the | |
implementation written by David Mills in the NTP project [1]. The | |
specification of the broadcast mode is based purely on this | |
implementation. The specification of the symmetric mode has some | |
modifications. The client/server mode is specified as a new mode | |
compatible with the symmetric mode, similarly to the basic symmetric | |
and client/server modes. | |
The authors would like to thank Theresa Enghardt, Daniel Franke, Erik | |
Kline, Tal Mizrahi, Steven Sommars, Harlan Stenn, and Kristof Teichel | |
for their useful comments. | |
9. References | |
9.1. Normative References | |
[I-D.ietf-ntp-data-minimization] | |
Franke, D. F. and A. Malhotra, "NTP Client Data | |
Minimization", draft-ietf-ntp-data-minimization-04 (work | |
in progress), March 2019. | |
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate | |
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, | |
DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997, | |
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>. | |
[RFC5905] Mills, D., Martin, J., Ed., Burbank, J., and W. Kasch, | |
"Network Time Protocol Version 4: Protocol and Algorithms | |
Specification", RFC 5905, DOI 10.17487/RFC5905, June 2010, | |
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5905>. | |
[RFC8174] Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC | |
2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174, | |
May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>. | |
9.2. Informative References | |
[RFC5906] Haberman, B., Ed. and D. Mills, "Network Time Protocol | |
Version 4: Autokey Specification", RFC 5906, | |
DOI 10.17487/RFC5906, June 2010, | |
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5906>. | |
[RFC7384] Mizrahi, T., "Security Requirements of Time Protocols in | |
Packet Switched Networks", RFC 7384, DOI 10.17487/RFC7384, | |
October 2014, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7384>. | |
[RFC9109] Gont, F., Gont, G., and M. Lichvar, "Network Time Protocol | |
Version 4: Port Randomization", RFC 9109, | |
DOI 10.17487/RFC9109, August 2021, | |
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9109>. | |
[SECNTP] Malhotra, A., Gundy, M., Varia, M., Kennedy, H., Gardner, | |
J., and S. Goldberg, "The Security of NTP's Datagram | |
Protocol", 2016, <http://eprint.iacr.org/2016/1006>. | |
9.3. URIs | |
[1] http://www.ntp.org | |
Authors' Addresses | |
Miroslav Lichvar | |
Red Hat | |
Purkynova 115 | |
Brno 612 00 | |
Czech Republic | |
Email: [email protected] | |
Aanchal Malhotra | |
Boston University | |
111 Cummington St | |
Boston 02215 | |
USA | |
Email: [email protected] | |
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