NTP Time Server Precision Timing Notes - 3 - NTP Authentication

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NTP authentication is intended to overcome any security risks associated with the Network Time Protocol. Authentication allows a NTP client to ascertain that a response to a request for time has actually come from the expected NTP server. A client can authenticate a server to ensure that no one has maliciously intercepted the communication between the client and server.

Authentication works by the NTP server appending one of an agreed set of encrypted authentication keys to any response to a client. The client can the decrypt the authentication key received from the server to ensure it is one of the agreed keys and accept or reject the response accordingly.

NTP authentication keys are generally encrypted using the MD5 (Message Digest Encryption 5) which is a secure 128 bit cryptographic hash function. MD5 is widely used as a secure encryption algorithm and is widely accepted as a secure encryption service.

To summarize, encrypted authentication is used by a network time client to authenticate that the NTP server is who he says he is and prevents any malicious interception of time stamps. Encryption relies on an agreed shared set of encrypted keys between client and server to prevent interception.

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