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ntp: minimize data in client mode packets

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In basic client mode, set the origin and receive timestamp to zero.
This reduces the amount of information useful for fingerprinting and
improves privacy as the origin timestamp allows a passive observer to
track individual NTP clients as they move across networks. (With chrony
clients that assumes the timestamp wasn't reset by the chronyc offline
and online commands.)

This follows recommendations from the current version of IETF draft on
NTP data minimization [1].

The timestamp could be theoretically useful for enhanced rate limiting
which can limit individual clients behind NAT and better deal with DoS
attacks, but no server implementation is known to do that.

[1] https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-ntp-data-minimization-01
This commit is contained in:
Miroslav Lichvar 2017-08-03 17:21:16 +02:00
parent ae82bbbace
commit be8215e181
1 changed files with 16 additions and 9 deletions
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7
ntp_core.c
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@ -981,6 +981,9 @@ transmit_packet(NTP_Mode my_mode, /* The mode this machine wants to be */
UTI_TimespecToNtp64(&our_ref_time, &message.reference_ts, NULL); UTI_TimespecToNtp64(&our_ref_time, &message.reference_ts, NULL);
/* Don't reveal timestamps which are not necessary for the protocol */
if (my_mode != MODE_CLIENT || interleaved) {
/* Originate - this comes from the last packet the source sent us */ /* Originate - this comes from the last packet the source sent us */
message.originate_ts = interleaved ? *remote_ntp_rx : *remote_ntp_tx; message.originate_ts = interleaved ? *remote_ntp_rx : *remote_ntp_tx;
@ -992,6 +995,10 @@ transmit_packet(NTP_Mode my_mode, /* The mode this machine wants to be */
the source like we have been running on our latest estimate of the source like we have been running on our latest estimate of
frequency all along */ frequency all along */
UTI_TimespecToNtp64(&local_receive, &message.receive_ts, &ts_fuzz); UTI_TimespecToNtp64(&local_receive, &message.receive_ts, &ts_fuzz);
} else {
UTI_ZeroNtp64(&message.originate_ts);
UTI_ZeroNtp64(&message.receive_ts);
}
do { do {
/* Prepare random bits which will be added to the transmit timestamp */ /* Prepare random bits which will be added to the transmit timestamp */