1. Ubuntu Security Notices
  2. USN-2449-1

USN-2449-1: NTP vulnerabilities

Publication date

22 December 2014

Overview

Several security issues were fixed in NTP.

Releases

Packages

  • ntp - Network Time Protocol daemon and utility programs

Details

Neel Mehta discovered that NTP generated weak authentication keys. A remote
attacker could possibly use this issue to brute force the authentication
key and send requests if permitted by IP restrictions. (CVE-2014-9293)

Stephen Roettger discovered that NTP generated weak MD5 keys. A remote
attacker could possibly use this issue to brute force the MD5 key and spoof
a client or server. (CVE-2014-9294)

Stephen Roettger discovered that NTP contained buffer overflows in the
crypto_recv(), ctl_putdata() and configure() functions. In non-default
configurations, a remote attacker could use these issues to cause NTP to
crash, resulting in a denial of service, or possibly execute arbitrary
code. The default compiler options for affected releases should reduce the
vulnerability to a denial of service. In addition, attackers would be
isolated by the NTP AppArmor...

Neel Mehta discovered that NTP generated weak authentication keys. A remote
attacker could possibly use this issue to brute force the authentication
key and send requests if permitted by IP restrictions. (CVE-2014-9293)

Stephen Roettger discovered that NTP generated weak MD5 keys. A remote
attacker could possibly use this issue to brute force the MD5 key and spoof
a client or server. (CVE-2014-9294)

Stephen Roettger discovered that NTP contained buffer overflows in the
crypto_recv(), ctl_putdata() and configure() functions. In non-default
configurations, a remote attacker could use these issues to cause NTP to
crash, resulting in a denial of service, or possibly execute arbitrary
code. The default compiler options for affected releases should reduce the
vulnerability to a denial of service. In addition, attackers would be
isolated by the NTP AppArmor profile. (CVE-2014-9295)

Stephen Roettger discovered that NTP incorrectly continued processing when
handling certain errors. (CVE-2014-9296)

Update instructions

After a standard system update you need to regenerate any MD5 keys that were manually created with ntp-keygen.

Learn more about how to get the fixes.

The problem can be corrected by updating your system to the following package versions:

Ubuntu Release Package Version
14.10 utopic ntp –  1:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.10.1
14.04 trusty ntp –  1:4.2.6.p5+dfsg-3ubuntu2.14.04.1
12.04 precise ntp –  1:4.2.6.p3+dfsg-1ubuntu3.2
10.04 lucid ntp –  1:4.2.4p8+dfsg-1ubuntu2.2

Reduce your security exposure

Ubuntu Pro provides ten-year security coverage to 25,000+ packages in Main and Universe repositories, and it is free for up to five machines.

Get Ubuntu Pro

References

Have additional questions?

Talk to a member of the team ›