RHSA-2015:2231 - Security Advisory

Topic

Updated ntp packages that fix multiple security issues, several bugs, and
add various enhancements are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.

Red Hat Product Security has rated this update as having Moderate security
impact. Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) base scores, which give
detailed severity ratings, are available for each vulnerability from the
CVE links in the References section.

Description

The Network Time Protocol (NTP) is used to synchronize a computer's time
with another referenced time source. These packages include the ntpd
service which continuously adjusts system time and utilities used to query
and configure the ntpd service.

It was found that because NTP's access control was based on a source IP
address, an attacker could bypass source IP restrictions and send
malicious control and configuration packets by spoofing ::1 addresses.
(CVE-2014-9298, CVE-2014-9751)

A denial of service flaw was found in the way NTP hosts that were peering
with each other authenticated themselves before updating their internal
state variables. An attacker could send packets to one peer host, which
could cascade to other peers, and stop the synchronization process among
the reached peers. (CVE-2015-1799)

A flaw was found in the way the ntp-keygen utility generated MD5 symmetric
keys on big-endian systems. An attacker could possibly use this flaw to
guess generated MD5 keys, which could then be used to spoof an NTP client
or server. (CVE-2015-3405)

A stack-based buffer overflow was found in the way the NTP autokey protocol
was implemented. When an NTP client decrypted a secret received from an NTP
server, it could cause that client to crash. (CVE-2014-9297, CVE-2014-9750)

It was found that ntpd did not check whether a Message Authentication Code
(MAC) was present in a received packet when ntpd was configured to use
symmetric cryptographic keys. A man-in-the-middle attacker could use this
flaw to send crafted packets that would be accepted by a client or a peer
without the attacker knowing the symmetric key. (CVE-2015-1798)

The CVE-2015-1798 and CVE-2015-1799 issues were discovered by Miroslav
Lichvár of Red Hat.

Bug fixes:

• The ntpd service truncated symmetric keys specified in the key file to 20

bytes. As a consequence, it was impossible to configure NTP authentication
to work with peers that use longer keys. With this update, the maximum key
length has been changed to 32 bytes. (BZ#1191111)

• The ntpd service could previously join multicast groups only when

starting, which caused problems if ntpd was started during system boot
before network was configured. With this update, ntpd attempts to join
multicast groups every time network configuration is changed. (BZ#1207014)

• Previously, the ntp-keygen utility used the exponent of 3 when generating

RSA keys. Consequently, generating RSA keys failed when FIPS mode was
enabled. With this update, ntp-keygen has been modified to use the exponent
of 65537, and generating keys in FIPS mode now works as expected.
(BZ#1191116)

• The ntpd service dropped incoming NTP packets if their source port was

lower than 123 (the NTP port). With this update, ntpd no longer checks the
source port number, and clients behind NAT are now able to correctly
synchronize with the server. (BZ#1171640)

Enhancements:

• This update adds support for configurable Differentiated Services Code

Points (DSCP) in NTP packets, simplifying configuration in large networks
where different NTP implementations or versions are using different DSCP
values. (BZ#1202828)

• This update adds the ability to configure separate clock stepping

thresholds for each direction (backward and forward). Use the "stepback"
and "stepfwd" options to configure each threshold. (BZ#1193154)

• Support for nanosecond resolution has been added to the Structural

Health Monitoring (SHM) reference clock. Prior to this update, when a
Precision Time Protocol (PTP) hardware clock was used as a time source to
synchronize the system clock, the accuracy of the synchronization was
limited due to the microsecond resolution of the SHM protocol. The
nanosecond extension in the SHM protocol now allows sub-microsecond
synchronization of the system clock. (BZ#1117702)

All ntp users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which
contain backported patches to correct these issues and add these
enhancements.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure all previously released errata
relevant to your system have been applied.

For details on how to apply this update, refer to:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 7.7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 7.6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 7.5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 7.4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 7.3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 7.7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 7.6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 7.4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 7 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 7.7 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 7.6 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 7.5 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 7.4 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 7.3 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 7 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.7 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.6 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.5 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.4 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.3 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing 7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 7.3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian 7 ppc64le
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian - Extended Update Support 7.7 ppc64le
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian - Extended Update Support 7.6 ppc64le
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian - Extended Update Support 7.5 ppc64le
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian - Extended Update Support 7.4 ppc64le
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian - Extended Update Support 7.3 ppc64le
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian - Extended Update Support 7.2 ppc64le
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - TUS 7.7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - TUS 7.6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - TUS 7.3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server for Power LE - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.7 ppc64le
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server for Power LE - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.6 ppc64le
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server for Power LE - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.4 ppc64le
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server for Power LE - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.3 ppc64le
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.3 x86_64

Fixes

• BZ - 1117702 - SHM refclock doesn't support nanosecond resolution
• BZ - 1122012 - SHM refclock allows only two units with owner-only access
• BZ - 1171640 - NTP drops requests when sourceport is below 123
• BZ - 1180721 - ntp: mreadvar command crash in ntpq
• BZ - 1184572 - CVE-2014-9298 CVE-2014-9751 ntp: drop packets with source address ::1
• BZ - 1184573 - CVE-2014-9297 CVE-2014-9750 ntp: vallen in extension fields are not validated
• BZ - 1191108 - ntpd should warn when monitoring facility can't be disabled due to restrict configuration
• BZ - 1191122 - ntpd -x steps clock on leap second
• BZ - 1193154 - permit differential fwd/back threshold for step vs. slew [PATCH]
• BZ - 1199430 - CVE-2015-1798 ntp: ntpd accepts unauthenticated packets with symmetric key crypto
• BZ - 1199435 - CVE-2015-1799 ntp: authentication doesn't protect symmetric associations against DoS attacks
• BZ - 1210324 - CVE-2015-3405 ntp: ntp-keygen may generate non-random symmetric keys on big-endian systems

CVEs

• CVE-2014-9297
• CVE-2014-9298
• CVE-2014-9750
• CVE-2014-9751
• CVE-2015-1798
• CVE-2015-1799
• CVE-2015-3405

References

• http://www.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/#normal