NAME

       ntp.keys - NTP symmetric key file format configuration file

SYNOPSIS

        [--option-name] [--option-name value]

       All arguments must be options.

DESCRIPTION

       This  document  describes  the format of an NTP symmetric key file.  For a description of the use of this
       type of file, see the "Authentication Support" section of the ntp.conf(5) page.

       ntpd(8) reads its keys from a file specified using the -k command line option or the  keys  statement  in
       the configuration file.  While key number 0 is fixed by the NTP standard (as 56 zero bits) and may not be
       changed, one or more keys numbered between 1 and 65534 may be arbitrarily set in the keys file.

       The key file uses the same comment conventions as the configuration file.  Key entries use a fixed format
       of the form

           keyno type key

       where keyno is a positive integer (between 1 and 65534), type is the message digest algorithm, and key is
       the key itself.

       The  key  may  be  given in a format controlled by the type field.  The type MD5 is always supported.  If
       ntpd was built with the OpenSSL library then  any  digest  library  supported  by  that  library  may  be
       specified.  However, if compliance with FIPS 140-2 is required the type must be either SHA or SHA1.

       What follows are some key types, and corresponding formats:

       MD5 The key is 1 to 16 printable characters terminated by an EOL, whitespace, or a # (which is the "start
       of comment" character).

       SHA
       SHA1
       RMD160 The key is a hex-encoded ASCII string of 40 characters, which is truncated as necessary.

              Note that the keys used by the ntpq(8) and ntpdc(8) programs are checked against passwords
              requested by the programs and entered by hand, so it is generally appropriate to specify these
              keys in ASCII format.

       FILES

       /etc/ntp.keys the default name of the configuration file

       SEE ALSO
              ntp.conf(5), ntpd(1), ntpdate(1), ntpdc(1), sntp(1)

AUTHORS

       The University of Delaware and Network Time Foundation

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 1992-2015 The University of Delaware and Network Time Foundation all rights reserved.  This
       program is released under the terms of the NTP license, <http://ntp.org/license>.

BUGS

       Please send bug reports to: http://bugs.ntp.org, bugs@ntp.org

NOTES

       This document was derived from FreeBSD.

       This manual page was AutoGen-erated from the ntp.keys option definitions.

4.2.8p4                                            21 Oct 2015                                       ntp.keys(5)