NTP Authentication Hashing Algorithm

B.

The Network Time Protocol (NTP) is a protocol used for clock synchronization between computer systems over packet-switched, variable-latency data networks. NTP provides authentication mechanisms for its clients and servers, which are based on cryptographic algorithms.

NTP uses Message Digest 5 (MD5) hashing algorithm for authentication. MD5 is a widely used cryptographic hash function that takes a message of any length and produces a fixed-length output. The hash function is one-way, meaning that it is computationally infeasible to determine the input message from its hash value.

In NTP authentication, the server and client share a secret key that is used to generate a hash value of the NTP message. The hash value is then included in the NTP message and sent to the other party. The receiving party uses the same secret key to generate a hash value of the received message and compares it with the hash value included in the message. If the two hash values match, the message is considered authentic.

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a cryptographic protocol used for secure communication over the internet. It provides authentication, encryption, and data integrity. However, SSL is not used for NTP authentication.

AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) is a symmetric-key encryption algorithm used for data encryption. AES is not used for NTP authentication, as it is not a hashing algorithm.

To summarize, NTP uses MD5 hashing algorithm for authentication, not SSL or AES.