[SNMP4J] V3 Not In Time Window and Client Clock Drift

Elise Atkins eatkins at tavve.com
Mon Jun 3 17:52:14 CEST 2013


Frank,

After looking at RFC 3414,  I have a different interpretation. In the 
case 1) the RFC states that the local notion of the value of the 
snmpEngineTime is to be updated to the msgAuthoritativeEngineTime. This 
should mean that the response is in time regardless of how slow or fast 
the authoritative engine's time is running as long as it moves in the 
forward direction when the time check is done in 2).

       b) If the extracted value of msgAuthoritativeEngineID is not the
          same as the value snmpEngineID of the processing SNMP engine
          (meaning this is not the authoritative SNMP engine), then:

          1) if at least one of the following conditions is true:

             - the extracted value of the msgAuthoritativeEngineBoots
               field is greater than the local notion of the value of
               snmpEngineBoots; or,

             - the extracted value of the msgAuthoritativeEngineBoots
               field is equal to the local notion of the value of
               snmpEngineBoots, and the extracted value of
               msgAuthoritativeEngineTime field is greater than the
               value of latestReceivedEngineTime,

             then the LCD entry corresponding to the extracted value of
             the msgAuthoritativeEngineID field is updated, by setting:

             - the local notion of the value of snmpEngineBoots to the
               value of the msgAuthoritativeEngineBoots field,*
*
             *- the local notion of the value of snmpEngineTime to the
               value of the msgAuthoritativeEngineTime field, and*

             - the latestReceivedEngineTime to the value of the value of
               the msgAuthoritativeEngineTime field

         2) if any of the following conditions is true, then the
             message is considered to be outside of the Time Window:

             - the local notion of the value of snmpEngineBoots is
               2147483647;

             - the value of the msgAuthoritativeEngineBoots field is
               less than the local notion of the value of
               snmpEngineBoots; or,

             - the value of the msgAuthoritativeEngineBoots field is
               equal to the local notion of the value of
               snmpEngineBoots and the value of the
               msgAuthoritativeEngineTime field is more than 150
               seconds less than the local notion of the value of
               snmpEngineTime.

 From the above, I think if the reboots are the same and the 
msgAuthoritativeEngineTime is greater then the 
latestReceivedTimeEngineTime, the latestReceivedEngineTime should be 
updated. At that point if you fall down into 2) then the since the

 From release 2.1.2 UsmTimeTable starting at line 174
      if ((entry.getEngineBoots() < time.getEngineBoots()) ||
          ((entry.getEngineBoots() == time.getEngineBoots()) &&
           (time.getTimeDiff() + now >
            entry.getLatestReceivedTime() + 150)) ||
          (time.getEngineBoots() == 2147483647)) {
        if (logger.isDebugEnabled()) {
          logger.debug(
              "CheckTime: received message outside time window (non 
authoritative)");
        }
        return SnmpConstants.SNMPv3_USM_NOT_IN_TIME_WINDOW;
      }
      else {
        if ((entry.getEngineBoots() > time.getEngineBoots()) ||
            ((entry.getEngineBoots() == time.getEngineBoots()) &&
             (entry.getLatestReceivedTime() > 
time.getLatestReceivedTime()))) {
          /* time ok, update values */
          time.setEngineBoots(entry.getEngineBoots());
          time.setLatestReceivedTime(entry.getLatestReceivedTime());
          time.setTimeDiff(entry.getLatestReceivedTime() - now);
        }

Frank Fock wrote:
> Hi Elise,
>
> I would like to give you an update on the issue below.
> I have checked the implementation, your findings, and the current RFC 
> 3414
> and found out, that RFC 3414 precised the description of the incoming
> message handling (section 3.2.7 pages 27-28).
>
> SNMP4J follows that description and is therefore conforming.
> No changes will be applied.
>
> Could you please verify this on your side, too?
>
> Best regards,
> Frank
>
> Am 23.05.2013 17:52, schrieb Elise Atkins:
>> We have been successfully using snmp4j using v3 for both requests and 
>> traps but have recently run into a problem with a client whose engine 
>> time clock runs slow.
>>
>> Initial time synchronization  goes ok and the  SNMP v3 requests and 
>> responses flow properly.  Eventually this client's engine time 
>> becomes more 150 seconds behind the time SNMP4j is expecting and the 
>> responses are marked as Not In Time.  I have looked at RFC 2574 
>> Section 3.2 subsection 7b and the code in the UsmTimeTable class, 
>> checkTime method and have questions about the order of testing for 
>> timeliness.
>>
>> Based on the RFC, I would expect the code to test for the conditions 
>> in 1 first and update if needed before testing the conditions in 2 
>> but the code seems to test in the reverse order. Testing 1 and 
>> updating reboots and time first will allow the client's clock to 
>> drift (fast or slow) as long as it is always increasing and remain in 
>> the time window. Am I missing something here?
>>
>> Elise Atkins
>>
>> The RFC says:
>>
>> 3.2.  Processing an Incoming SNMP Message
>>   7)  If the securityLevel indicates an authenticated message, then
>>       the local values of snmpEngineBoots, snmpEngineTime
>>       and latestReceivedEngineTime
>>       corresponding to the value of the msgAuthoritativeEngineID
>>       field are extracted from the Local Configuration Datastore.
>>
>>       b) If the extracted value of msgAuthoritativeEngineID is not the
>>          same as the value snmpEngineID of the processing SNMP engine
>>          (meaning this is not the authoritative SNMP engine), then:
>>
>>          1) if at least one of the following conditions is true:
>>
>>             - the extracted value of the msgAuthoritativeEngineBoots
>>               field is greater than the local notion of the value of
>>               snmpEngineBoots; or,
>>
>>             - the extracted value of the msgAuthoritativeEngineBoots
>>               field is equal to the local notion of the value of
>>               snmpEngineBoots, and the extracted value of
>>               msgAuthoritativeEngineTime field is greater than the
>>               value of latestReceivedEngineTime,
>>
>>             then the LCD entry corresponding to the extracted value
>>             of the msgAuthoritativeEngineID field is updated, by
>>             setting:
>>
>>                - the local notion of the value of snmpEngineBoots to
>>                  the value of the msgAuthoritativeEngineBoots field,
>>                - the local notion of the value of snmpEngineTime to
>>                  the value of the msgAuthoritativeEngineTime field,
>>                  and
>>                - the latestReceivedEngineTime to the value of the
>>                  value of the msgAuthoritativeEngineTime field.
>>
>>          2) if any of the following conditions is true, then the
>>             message is considered to be outside of the Time Window:
>>
>>             - the local notion of the value of snmpEngineBoots is
>>               2147483647;
>>
>>             - the value of the msgAuthoritativeEngineBoots field is
>>               less than the local notion of the value of
>>               snmpEngineBoots; or,
>>
>>             - the value of the msgAuthoritativeEngineBoots field is
>>               equal to the local notion of the value of
>>               snmpEngineBoots and the value of the
>>               msgAuthoritativeEngineTime field is more than 150
>>               seconds less than the local notion of the value of
>>               snmpEngineTime.
>>
>>             If the message is considered to be outside of the Time
>>             Window then an error indication (notInTimeWindow) is
>>             returned to the calling module.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SNMP4J mailing list
>> SNMP4J at agentpp.org
>> http://lists.agentpp.org/mailman/listinfo/snmp4j
>




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