[89897] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Open Letter to D-Link about their NTP vandalism
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Edward B. DREGER)
Wed Apr 12 01:45:52 2006
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 05:45:20 +0000 (GMT)
From: "Edward B. DREGER" <eddy+public+spam@noc.everquick.net>
To: nanog@merit.edu
In-Reply-To: <200604120347.k3C3lBEr088221@chateau-briand.net>
Errors-To: owner-nanog@merit.edu
BD> Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 23:47:11 -0400
BD> From: Brian Dickson
BD> As to the liability issue, it is easy enough to envision that
BD> someone, somewhere, is relying on time results from NTP for a
BD> life-or-death application, like a medical device, and is innocently
BD> an impacted third party in this.
If I had a life-or-death application depending on NTP, I'd do what I've
already suggested: Use GPS and multiple stratum-1 servers, and clip
adjustment delta magnitude. I might also listen for a heartbeat (no pun
intended) saying "device agrees with NTP server", then raise an error if
that condition failed.
BD> Sending bad NTP values could in theory be responsible for killing
BD> someone's scratch monkey...
I can only hope that my life is never entrusted to a device that, at the
suggestion of a lone NTP server, would adjust the clock by 42 years.
IANAL, nor do I play one on TV, but such a setup would seem grossly
negligent.
Automated devices fail. Pretending otherwise is foolish. But you _did_
say "scratch monkey". :-)
Eddy
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