NTPsec 1.2.5 released

[James Browning]

> On 08/06/2026 5:16 AM PDT Hal Murray via devel <devel at ntpsec.org> wrote:
> 
>  
> This area is a big mess.  I think we have to figure out what we mean by 
> "support".
> 
> We need crypto in 3 areas:
>   MD5 to hash IPv6 addresses to fit into 32 bits.
>   Shared key
>   NTS

Leap file signature check?

> What does support mean if it can't build with NTS?

We lose the a feature we have and classic ntpd lacks.

> FreeBSD ships with one version of OpenSSL, but you can install a newer (or 
> older) version from their packages collection.  NTPsec knows how to find 
> it.
> 
> $ openssl version
> OpenSSL 3.5.6 7 Apr 2026 (Library: OpenSSL 3.5.6 7 Apr 2026)
> 
> $pkg search 
> openssl-3.0.21,1               TLSv1.3 capable SSL and crypto library
> openssl34-3.4.6                TLSv1.3 capable SSL and crypto library
> openssl35-3.5.7                TLSv1.3 capable SSL and crypto library
> openssl36-3.6.3                TLSv1.3 capable SSL and crypto library
> openssl40-4.0.1                TLSv1.3 capable SSL and crypto library
> 
> -------
> 
> You can build yourself a version of OpenSSL from source.  I do it for 
> testing upcoming releases.  Directions are in HOWTO-OpenSSL  I haven't 
> tested those directions and any of their tarballs on any really old 
> systems.
> 
> -------
> 
> > I think we wanted to keep supporting OpenSSL 1.1.1 for a bit longer since
> > several Linux distributions still have it. Eg: 
> 
> How many of the people running old systems want modern NTPsec?  I assume 
> the reason they are running such old code is that they don't want to rock 
> the boat.
> 
> > - Debian 11 shipped OpenSSL 1.1.1. Standard LTS support ends August 2026.
> 
> From apt show ntpsec on Debian 11/bullseye
>     Package: ntpsec
>     Version: 1.2.0+dfsg1-4
> 
> ----------
> 
> The reason that I want to get rid of supporting 1.1.1 is to simplify the 
> code.
> 
> There are 28 places that start with
>   #if OPENSSL_VERSION_NUMBER
> 
> There is more in the attic, but they don't come under the support umbrella.
> 
> We did all the early NTS development on 1.1.1.  I don't remember any major 
> changes when 3.0 came out.

I'm sure there are some; I'm too lazy to dig up the release notes.

> Most of the ugliness is in the shared key code where I've been working recently.  I'll look into cleaning that up when things calm down.  I have the HMAC code close to ready to merge, but there is no rush for that.
> 
> In case anybody hasn't noticed yet, NIST now supports good crypto on their authenticated (aka shared key) service.
> https://www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division/time-services/nist-authenticated-ntp-service
> 
> SHA256 already works so I don't see any rush for HMAC-SHA256.

{aes,aria,camellia}-{128,192,256} ciphers "work".

the following digests, "work".

sha{,3}-{224,256,384,512} blake2{b512,s256} md5 sha1 rmd160

I see more things on the lists that I don't remember checking.

contrib/keygone.py "works" for generating keys for all the above.