Dstack-TEE / Dstack-TEE/dstack

secure_time: true can never sync — guest chrony is built without NTS

Open
#745 2 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
bug security
Dominant language
Rust
Stars
544
Forks
96
Avg merge
17h 57m
Merged PRs (30d)
117

Description

### Problem

Guest images ship `/etc/chrony/chrony.conf` with every time server set to NTS (`server iburst nts`), but **chronyd is compiled without NTS support**. Chrony therefore has zero usable sources and never synchronizes.

Any app with `secure_time: true` — the manifest default (`default_true`) — then blocks in `dstack-util` `system_setup.rs` on `chronyc waitsync`, which bails → `boot.error` → reboot. On SEV-SNP this is a hard loop (`cpus are not resettable, terminating` → VMM restarts forever); on TDX it's a boot failure.

Confirmed from inside a running CVM:

```
chronyd 4.8 starting (... -NTS ...)
Missing NTS support
Can't synchronise: no selectable sources (10 unreachable sources)
```

`chronyc authdata` shows `Cook=0` for all servers (NTS-KE never attempted), and the clock was already correct (stepped `0.000000s`) — so it's not a network, clock, or platform issue.

It has gone unnoticed because every real deployment sets `secure_time: false`; the broken NTS sync is silent until the strict gate is enabled.

### Fix

In meta-dstack, `recipes-core/chrony/chrony%.bbappend` adds `DEPENDS += "gnutls"` and an NTS config but never enables the NTS build flag. Upstream `chrony_4.8.bb` gates it behind `PACKAGECONFIG[nts]`. Add:

```
PACKAGECONFIG:append = " nts"
```

Then chronyd is built with NTS and `secure_time: true` can actually sync.

Separately, single-node/no-gateway deploys (no trusted time source) should default `secure_time: false`.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start with meta-dstack/recipes-core/chrony/chrony%.bbappend and compare its PACKAGECONFIG with upstream chrony_4.8.bb, then inspect dstack-util/system_setup.rs around the chronyc waitsync gate. Build an image with NTS enabled and verify that chronyc can synchronize; also trace the single-node default so secure_time is false where no trusted time source exists.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
build-system, infrastructure, security
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
68/100

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