[Resource Topic] 2015/1020: Attacking the Network Time Protocol

Welcome to the resource topic for 2015/1020

Title:
Attacking the Network Time Protocol

Authors: Aanchal Malhotra, Isaac E. Cohen, Erik Brakke, Sharon Goldberg

Abstract:

We explore the risk that network attackers can exploit unauthenticated Network Time Protocol (NTP) traffic to alter the time on client systems. We first discuss how an on-path attacker, that hijacks traffic to an NTP server, can quickly shift time on the server’s clients. Then, we present a extremely low-rate (single packet) denial-of-service attack that an off-path attacker, located anywhere on the network, can use to disable NTP clock synchronization on a client. Next, we show how an off-path attacker can exploit IPv4 packet fragmentation to shift time on a client. We discuss the implications on these attacks on other core Internet protocols, quantify their attack surface using Internet measurements, and suggest a few simple countermeasures that can improve the security of NTP.

ePrint: https://eprint.iacr.org/2015/1020

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