Cloudflare Time

[Stevens243]

Very interesting blog post! I learned a few things. I've also set my Merlin sourced NTP server to; time.cloudflare.com per the article. No data yet, but looking at it over the next few days.

https://blog.cloudflare.com/secure-time/

 

[Swistheater]

Very interesting blog post! I learned a few things. I've also set my Merlin sourced NTP server to; time.cloudflare.com per the article. No data yet, but looking at it over the next few days.

https://blog.cloudflare.com/secure-time/

the real question that will be waiting to be answered by @RMerlin the great is, does his time server support NTS function? and also @Jack Yaz does his implementation support NTS as well?

if so Cloudflares NTS feature can be used by the address time.cloudflare.com:1234

and another questionable feature is their secure implementation of rough time
roughtime.cloudflare.com:2002

 

[Jack Yaz]

If/when entware ntpd picks it up, then sure

 

[RMerlin]

does his time server support NTS function?

No, Busybox only supports regular NTP.

 

[Swistheater]

No, Busybox only supports regular NTP.

though security is important, i do not really care for all the stratum 3 servers I am seeing when i use the pool option with cloud flare's basic ntp server.

 

[martinr]

Thank you. What a well written, well explained article (except for “perspicuously“); you don’t need to be an expert to get a fair understanding of it.


I’ve set time.cloudflare.com as my primary and pool.ntp.org as the secondary ntp server. I look forwards to your follow up with data, which I assume will be a lot more scientific than my did-it-break-my router.

 

[Swistheater]

Thank you. What a well written, well explained article (except for “perspicuously“); you don’t need to be an expert to get a fair understanding of it.


I’ve set time.cloudflare.com as my primary and pool.ntp.org as the secondary ntp server. I look forwards to your follow up with data, which I assume will be a lot more scientific than my did-it-break-my router.

I can confirm that it supports not only being run as a server but also as a pool if you prefer to use pool option. I have it placed in line a more precise server to see how well it handles.

 

[netmik3]

They just released a new NTP service at time.cloudflare.com

It's really fast and reliable https://blog.cloudflare.com/secure-time/

I'm switching my network to it. I still use Quad9 for DNS because they do some security filtering.

 

[netmik3]

It's really fast and reliable https://blog.cloudflare.com/secure-time/

I'm switching my network to it. I still use Quad9 for DNS because they do some security filtering.

 

[Chiny91]

No, Busybox only supports regular NTP.

Not much appears to support NTS for users, other than ntpsec, maybe not even that depending on what version of TLS is being run, which probably demands the latest openssl... could be quite an updating exercise. Interesting development - a long time in the works, draft 19 of that IETF.

 

[Raphie]

Can someone explain why one would like to switch from the std time.pool.gov etc servers? Where is the upside what security hole is at stake here? It’s just a time svr feeding your router no?

 

[Mutzli]

Can someone explain why one would like to switch from the std time.pool.gov etc servers? Where is the upside what security hole is at stake here? It’s just a time svr feeding your router no?

Speed and security, I get 8-10ms response time from the cloudflare NTP server compared to pool.ntp.org with response times of 22-24ms.

 

[Raphie]

Speed? How is speed (as in ms) relevant for a time server that syncs once every 24h?
What is the security improvement? Can you qualify?

 

[Swistheater]

Speed? How is speed (as in ms) relevant for a time server that syncs once every 24h?
What is the security improvement? Can you qualify?

Well first off that means the servers are closer to you and more likely to be accurate to you. As far as security goes , the only risk to time is people with time critical applications, but I would not recommend nts if accuracy is your main focus. It is more like false sense of security vs accuracy.

 

[Raphie]

Why? They send a timestamp, the network corrects the latency. There is no advantage on “time” what’s the security improvement?

 

[Swistheater]

Protection from DDos of some types to protect servers

 

[Swistheater]

Some functions require time accuracy to function or they will not function at all and if time can suffer a ddos attack then somethings will be forced to stop functioning possibly even lose all security and allow easier hacking.

 

[Grisu]

Some functions require time accuracy to function or they will not function at all and if time can suffer a ddos attack then somethings will be forced to stop functioning possibly even lose all security and allow easier hacking.

And how accurate has time to be for said functions?
And how accurate needed for ddos attack protection?

 

[Swistheater]

That I am not qualified to specify, but I have heard of security networks being taken down simply because the clocks did not function. Do I think nts is important to every day home user, maybe not so much , but arguably it does serve a purpose. BTW when using nts you naturally give up some level of accuracy for security.

 

[Raphie]

Exactly it’s BS, time is a timestamp pulse, to set your local time, depending on the interval it can touch your lan as little as once a month.
And DDOS? your router drops those packets. Again I don’t see ANY real world use for us prosumers, other than “because we can”