Exploits for dangerous network time protocol vulnerabilities can compromise systems

Remote code execution vulnerabilities in the standard implementation of the network time protocol (NTP) can be exploited by attackers to compromise servers, embedded devices and even critical infrastructure systems that run UNIX-like operating systems.

The flaws, which can be exploited by sending specially crafted packets to machines running a vulnerable version of the NTP daemon (ntpd), pose a greater threat to systems where the service runs under a highly privileged user account such as root.

However, even if the ntpd user has limited privileges, attackers could leverage other privilege escalation flaws to gain root access after exploiting the NTP flaws.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here