[tor-relays] bad validity timestamps on authority certificates

[Scott Bennett]

     On Sat, 5 Nov 2011 02:14:43 -0400 Roger Dingledine <arma at mit.edu> wrote:
>On Fri, Nov 04, 2011 at 06:06:41PM -0500, Scott Bennett wrote:
>> Nov 04 15:51:00.273 [warn] Certificate not yet valid: is your system clock set incorrectly?
>> Nov 04 15:51:00.274 [warn] (certificate lifetime runs from Nov  5 04:26:47 2011 GMT through Nov  4 04:26:47 2012 GMT. Your time is Nov 04 20:51:00 2011 GMT.)
>[snip]
>> My system's clock gets adjusted to the network timeservers' values once per
>> hour.  I've checked the logs and found that the each adjustment has been less
>> than 71 ms during this time.
>>      So the question is why are the authorities putting out new certificates
>> with valid time periods beginning six or more hours in the future?  Also, when
>> will the authorities be corrected?
>
>These aren't directory authorities. These are just random relays that
>you're connecting to who have clocks more than an hour off, and an
>over-active log message.

     Oh, okay.  I had thought that only the authorities passed out
"certificates", which then got stored into cached-certs.  I didn't know
that just any old relay could do so, too.
>
>See
>https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/4370
>https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/4371

     Thanks for the explanation, Roger.  BTW, those messages seem to
have stopped a few hours ago.
>
>This is the alpha Tor, with a shiny new (and still somewhat
>sharp-around-the-edges) v3 link handshake. I'm glad this one doesn't
>crash, like the last one did. :)
>
     Yup.  After seeing the notes about that bug, I just waited an extra
day or two to upgrade, skipping 0.2.3.6-alpha and going straight to
0.2.3.7-alpha when it became available. :-)


                                  Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG
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