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Posted on 14 January 2016
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FreeBSD-SA-16:02.ntp Security Advisory
The FreeBSD Project
Topic: ntp panic threshold bypass vulnerability
Category: contrib
Module: ntp
Announced: 2016-01-14
Credits: Network Time Foundation
Affects: All supported versions of FreeBSD.
Corrected: 2016-01-11 01:09:50 UTC (stable/10, 10.2-STABLE)
2016-01-14 09:10:46 UTC (releng/10.2, 10.2-RELEASE-p9)
2016-01-14 09:11:16 UTC (releng/10.1, 10.1-RELEASE-p26)
2016-01-11 01:48:16 UTC (stable/9, 9.3-STABLE)
2016-01-14 09:11:26 UTC (releng/9.3, 9.3-RELEASE-p33)
CVE Name: CVE-2015-5300
For general information regarding FreeBSD Security Advisories,
including descriptions of the fields above, security branches, and the
following sections, please visit <URL:https://security.FreeBSD.org/>.
I. Background
The ntpd(8) daemon is an implementation of the Network Time Protocol (NTP)
used to synchronize the time of a computer system to a reference time
source.
II. Problem Description
The ntpd(8) daemon has a safety feature to prevent excessive stepping of
the clock called the "panic threshold". If ever ntpd(8) determines the
system clock is incorrect by more than this threshold, the daemon exits.
There is an implementation error within the ntpd(8) implementation of this
feature, which allows the system time be adjusted in certain circumstances.
III. Impact
When ntpd(8) is started with the '-g' option specified, the system time will
be corrected regardless of if the time offset exceeds the panic threshold (by
default, 1000 seconds). The FreeBSD rc(8) subsystem allows specifying the
'-g' option by either including '-g' in the ntpd_flags list or by enabling
ntpd_sync_on_start in the system rc.conf(5) file.
If at the moment ntpd(8) is restarted, an attacker can immediately respond to
enough requests from enough sources trusted by the target, which is difficult
and not common, there is a window of opportunity where the attacker can cause
ntpd(8) to set the time to an arbitrary value.
IV. Workaround
No workaround is available, but systems not running ntpd(8), or running
ntpd(8) but do not use ntpd_sync_on_start="YES" or specify the '-g' option in
ntpd_flags are not affected. Neither of these are set by default.
V. Solution
Perform one of the following:
1) Upgrade your vulnerable system to a supported FreeBSD stable or
release / security branch (releng) dated after the correction date.
The ntpd service has to be restarted after the update. A reboot is
recommended but not required.
2) To update your vulnerable system via a binary patch:
Systems running a RELEASE version of FreeBSD on the i386 or amd64
platforms can be updated via the freebsd-update(8) utility:
# freebsd-update fetch
# freebsd-update install
The ntpd service has to be restarted after the update. A reboot is
recommended but not required.
3) To update your vulnerable system via a source code patch:
The following patches have been verified to apply to the applicable
FreeBSD release branches.
a) Download the relevant patch from the location below, and verify the
detached PGP signature using your PGP utility.
[FreeBSD 10.1 and 10.2]
# fetch https://security.FreeBSD.org/patches/SA-16:02/ntp-10.patch
# fetch https://security.FreeBSD.org/patches/SA-16:02/ntp-10.patch.asc
# gpg --verify ntp-10.patch.asc
[FreeBSD 9.3]
# fetch https://security.FreeBSD.org/patches/SA-16:02/ntp-9.patch
# fetch https://security.FreeBSD.org/patches/SA-16:02/ntp-9.patch.asc
# gpg --verify ntp-9.patch.asc
b) Apply the patch. Execute the following commands as root:
# cd /usr/src
# patch < /path/to/patch
c) Recompile the operating system using buildworld and installworld as
described in <URL:https://www.FreeBSD.org/handbook/makeworld.html>.
Restart the applicable daemons, or reboot the system.
VI. Correction details
The following list contains the correction revision numbers for each
affected branch.
Branch/path Revision
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
stable/9/ r293652
releng/9.3/ r293896
stable/10/ r293650
releng/10.1/ r293894
releng/10.2/ r293893
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
To see which files were modified by a particular revision, run the
following command, replacing NNNNNN with the revision number, on a
machine with Subversion installed:
# svn diff -cNNNNNN --summarize svn://svn.freebsd.org/base
Or visit the following URL, replacing NNNNNN with the revision number:
<URL:https://svnweb.freebsd.org/base?view=revision&revision=NNNNNN>
VII. References
<URL:https://www.cs.bu.edu/~goldbe/NTPattack.html>
<URL:https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2015-5300>
The latest revision of this advisory is available at
<URL:https://security.FreeBSD.org/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-16:02.ntp.asc>
