Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
for Networking
| October 19, 2021
| Topic: Networking
“Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?”
Actually, if you use computers for pretty much anything, you do. Oh, you may not know it if you’re not a system or network administrator, but security, identification, networks, everything that makes the internet goes depends on accurate time-keeping. To do this, some systems rely on Global Positioning Systems (GPS) appliances and the GPSD daemon to tell the exact time, and a nasty bug’s been uncovered in GPSD that’s going to pop up on October 24, 2021. If left unpatched, it’s going to switch your time to some time in March 2012, and your system will crash with a resounding kaboom. Here’s how it works.
Well, there are two problems. First, it won’t be backported to previous releases. If you’re still using an older version, you may be out of luck. Second, as Miller observed, not all distros “pick up GPSD updates or upstream their patches. [This] is a very sore spot with me.” So, just because your operating system is up to date does not mean that it will have the necessary GPSD fix. Miller suggests that you check it and do it yourself: “I [am] gonna fall back on Greg K_H’s dictum: All users must update.”
Oh, wondering what the mysterious root cause of all this commotion GPS Week Rollover? It’s a legacy GPS problem. The GPS signal GPS week number uses a 10-bit code with a maximum value of 1,023. This means every 19.7 years; the GPS week number rolls over to zero. Or, as Miller noted, “This code is a 1024 week time warp waiting to happen.”
So, check your systems now for this problem. And, if, like most of us, you’re relying on someone upstream from you for the correct time, check with them to make sure they’ve taken care of this forthcoming trouble. Otherwise, well, remember all that chatter about how awful Y2K was going to be? Y2K, as the end of the tech world, fizzled because we did all the right things. This one may not be a global problem, but I can easily see many companies ending up in a world of trouble if they don’t make sure their time-keeping is properly patched.
Related Stories:
Does anyone really know what time it is? Facebook does.Saving NTP: The protocol that keeps time across the internet.Microsoft NTP servers suffer hiccups.
Related Topics:
Open Source
Cloud
Internet of Things
Security
Data Centers
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
for Networking
| October 19, 2021
| Topic: Networking