Title

IBM z/OS SNTP daemon (SNTPD) must be active. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Inaccurate time stamps make it more difficult to correlate events and can lead to an inaccurate analysis. Determining the correct time, a particular event occurred on a system is critical when conducting forensic analysis and investigating system events. Sources outside the configured acceptable allowance (drift) may be inaccurate. Synchronizing internal information system clocks provides uniformity of time stamps for information systems with multiple system clocks and systems connected over a network. Organizations should consider endpoints that may not have regular access to the authoritative time server (e.g., mobile, teleworking, and tactical endpoints).

Check Content

Verify the operating system, for networked systems, compares internal information system clocks at least every 24 hours with a server which is synchronized to one of the redundant United States Naval Observatory (USNO) time servers, or a time server designated for the appropriate DoD network (NIPRNet/SIPRNet), and/or the Global Positioning System (GPS). If it does not, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Obtain a copy of this sample procedure from SEZAINST and store it in one of your PROCLIB concatenation data sets. Perform the following step to start SNTPD as a procedure: Invoke the procedure using the system operator start command. The following sample, SEZAINST(SNTPD), shows how to start SNTPD as a procedure: //* //* Sample procedure for the Simple Network Time Protocol (SNTP) //* //* z/OS Communications Server Version 1 Release 13 //* SMP/E Distribution Name: SEZAINST(EZASNPRO) //* //* Copyright: Licensed Materials - Property of IBM //* 5650-ZOS //* Copyright IBM Corp. 2002, 2015 //* //* Status: CSV2R2 //* //SNTPD EXEC PGM=SNTPD,REGION=4096K,TIME=NOLIMIT, //PARM='/ -d' //SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=*,DCB=(RECFM=F,LRECL=132,BLKSIZE=132) //SYSIN DD DUMMY //SYSERR DD SYSOUT=* //SYSOUT DD SYSOUT=*,DCB=(RECFM=F,LRECL=132,BLKSIZE=132) //CEEDUMP DD SYSOUT=* //SYSABEND DD SYSOUT=*

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-223552r877038_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-223552

Group Title: SRG-OS-000355-GPOS-00143

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

Controls tied to check. These are derived from the CCIs shown above.