Disable ntpdate Service (ntpdate)
Description
The ntpdate service sets the local hardware clock by polling NTP servers
when the system boots. It synchronizes to the NTP servers listed in
/etc/ntp/step-tickers or /etc/ntp.conf
and then sets the local hardware clock to the newly synchronized
system time.
The ntpdate service can be disabled with the following command:
$ sudo systemctl disable ntpdate.service
Rationale
The ntpdate service may only be suitable for systems which
are rebooted frequently enough that clock drift does not cause problems between
reboots. In any event, the functionality of the ntpdate service is now
available in the ntpd program and should be considered deprecated.
Shell script
The following script can be run on the host to remediate the issue.
SYSTEMCTL\_EXEC='/usr/bin/systemctl'
"$SYSTEMCTL\_EXEC" stop 'ntpdate.service'
"$SYSTEMCTL\_EXEC" disable 'ntpdate.service'
# Disable socket activation if we have a unit file for it
"$SYSTEMCTL\_EXEC" list-unit-files | grep -q '^ntpdate.socket\>' && "$SYSTEMCTL\_EXEC" disable 'ntpdate.socket'
# The service may not be running because it has been started and failed,
# so let's reset the state so OVAL checks pass.
# Service should be 'inactive', not 'failed' after reboot though.
"$SYSTEMCTL\_EXEC" reset-failed 'ntpdate.service'
Ansible playbook
The following playbook can be run with Ansible to remediate the issue.
- name: Disable service ntpdate
service:
name: "{{item}}"
enabled: "no"
state: "stopped"
register: service\_result
failed\_when: "service\_result is failed and ('Could not find the requested service' not in service\_result.msg)"
with\_items:
- ntpdate
tags:
- service\_ntpdate\_disabled
- unknown\_severity
- disable\_strategy
- low\_complexity
- low\_disruption
- NIST-800-53-AC-17(8)
- NIST-800-53-CM-7
- name: Disable socket of service ntpdate if applicable
service:
name: "{{item}}"
enabled: "no"
state: "stopped"
register: socket\_result
failed\_when: "socket\_result is failed and ('Could not find the requested service' not in socket\_result.msg)"
with\_items:
- ntpdate.socket
tags:
- service\_ntpdate\_disabled
- unknown\_severity
- disable\_strategy
- low\_complexity
- low\_disruption
- NIST-800-53-AC-17(8)
- NIST-800-53-CM-7
