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FreeBSD security advisory 10-02: ntpd

2010-01-10 posted by Fleximus
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.

Problem description


If ntpd receives a mode 7 (MODE_PRIVATE) request or error response from a source address not listed in either a 'restrict ... noquery' or a 'restrict ... ignore' section it will log the even and send a mode 7 error response.

Impact


If an attacker can spoof such a packet from a source IP of an affected ntpd to the same or a different affected ntpd, the host(s) will endlessly send error responses to each other and log each event, consuming network bandwidth, CPU and possibly disk space.

Original advisory and solution


FreeBSD-SA-10:02.ntpd