diff --git a/chrony.texi.in b/chrony.texi.in index d2003af..1900a6b 100644 --- a/chrony.texi.in +++ b/chrony.texi.in @@ -2543,6 +2543,21 @@ be reported using the @code{clients} command in @code{chronyc}. The syntax of this directive is identical to that for the @code{server} directive (@pxref{server directive}), except that it is used to specify an NTP peer rather than an NTP server. + +Please note that NTP peers that are not configured with a key to enable +authentication are vulnerable to a denial-of-service attack. An attacker +knowing that NTP hosts A and B are peering with each other can send a packet +with random timestamps to host A with source address of B which will set the +NTP state variables on A to the values sent by the attacker. Host A will then +send on its next poll to B a packet with originate timestamp that doesn't match +the transmit timestamp of B and the packet will be dropped. If the attacker +does this periodically for both hosts, they won't be able to synchronize to +each other. + +This attack can be prevented by enabling authentication with the key option, or +using the @code{server} directive on both sides to specify the other host as a +server instead of peer, the only drawback is that it will double the network +traffic between the two hosts. @c }}} @c {{{ pidfile @node pidfile directive