[Ntp] Antw: [EXT] Re: What is SNTP?

Ulrich Windl <Ulrich.Windl@rz.uni-regensburg.de> Thu, 08 September 2022 07:29 UTC

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Date: Thu, 08 Sep 2022 09:29:43 +0200
From: Ulrich Windl <Ulrich.Windl@rz.uni-regensburg.de>
To: halmurray@sonic.net
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Subject: [Ntp] Antw: [EXT] Re: What is SNTP?
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>>> Hal Murray <halmurray@sonic.net> schrieb am 08.09.2022 um 00:07 in
Nachricht
<20220907220704.CCFE828C1D8@107-137-68-211.lightspeed.sntcca.sbcglobal.net>:

> mayer@pdmconsulting.net said:
>>>    A list of the version 1 formats that are in use.
>> What do you mean by version 1 formats?
>> NTPv4 would be a minimum format. 
> 
> That's the whole point of that part of my message.
> 
> There are a lot of SNTP clients out there in firmware that will never be 
> updated.  Some/many of them are using version 1.  Some of those are using 
> undocumented variants that worked when the code shipped.  Users expect it to

> 
> keep working so we have to support it.  There is no RFC or anything else 
> that 
> describes what "it" is.
> 
> I think we need to collect that information.  It doesn't need to be in an 
> RFC. 
>  Something more formal than an email message would be nice.

I feel a rather strong objection:
If there is code out that does violate the specs (considering using NTPv1
after year 2000 is a violation of specs),
I see no point in considering such bad implementations for a future protocol
revision.
The best one could do IMHO is to write a "protocol gateway" that transforms
bad requests to valid ones (also reducing the quality, but of those
implementers actually would care, they'd fix the stuff I think). But that
should be completely outside of any NTP specification.

Compare it to clients using obsolete or incorrectly implemented crypto
algorithms: Should servers take care of those, or should the simply block such
connections? I'm not a fan of "incompatibility", but at some point in time
you'll have to get rid of the old (specifically the incorrect) stuff.

> 
> I agree that NTPv4 should be used by new SNTP clients.

"A current version of NTP should be used by current SNTP clients", "current"
meaning ">= 4" ;-)

> 
> 
>> I very much doubt that today you can get the IETF to accept a draft 
unless
>> there is some sort authentication mechanism. 
> 
> Is a reference to NTS good enough?

Would it be "simple" enough for SNTP?

Regards,
Ulrich

> 
> 
> ‑‑ 
> These are my opinions.  I hate spam.
> 
> 
> 
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