TIME-3124 - NTP time local source used

This information is provided as part of the Lynis community project. It is related to Lynis control TIME-3124 and should be considered as-is and without guarantees. Any advice and commands should be tested before implementing them in production environments.

Control details
CategoryTime
Application

Description

When only a local source is being used on a system, it might indicate that external sources are not reachable or usable. The NTP configuration and time synchronization in particular, is important for systems. It helps with properly logging the actual time, which is needed for many services. Having the right time is also important for accounting purposes and forensics. Check the NTP configuration of this system to determine the cause of this finding.

How to solve

Check the peers list (ntpq -p) to determine if there are any NTP servers configured. If they are all listed are faulty (e.g. stratum 16), check your firewall or router configuration.

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Lynis is a technical security auditing tool for Unix flavors like Linux, macOS, AIX, Solaris, and *BSD. It is open source software and free to use. Typical usage include system hardening, compliance testing, and vulnerability scanning. The project has an active community, including development via GitHub.

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