[ntpwg] Issues with the NTP draft -06

[Danny Mayer]

TS Glassey wrote:
>> On 6/22/07, Danny Mayer wrote:
>>
>>>  The problem here is that the refid is to be used to detect timing loops
>>>  but it can be any value that can do the job and should be unique for
>>>  each server and not interface address. Thus a server should have one
>>> and
>>>  only one refid irrespective of whether it is using IPv4 or IPv6
>>>  addresses. Tying it to an IP address is not really a good idea.
>>> Tying it
>>>  to a MAC address might be a better idea.
>>
>> You've got a MAC address per interface, so if you want to avoid doing
>> anything on a per-interface basis, then using the MAC address is just
>> as bad as an IP address.  Moreover, with many high availability
>> services, you can "steal" IP and MAC addresses from one machine to
>> another, and you really don't want to base anything for NTP on
>> something that could be moved from one machine to another on a
>> moments notice.
> 
> OK - lets jump up to 200000 feet and quantify this model - and the
> requirement... So then you are looking for a way to anchor the trust and
> integrity model for the NTP Server to a physical source or site.

No, the goal is to prevent timing loops. The value needs only to be
reasonably unique. This is not an authentication scheme. Autokey is used
for authentication.

Danny