Problem 2038

2017: Forecast of F-Secure

The head of research division of F-Secure Mikko Hipponen, speaking at the Black Hat USA 2017 conference (on July 26-27), gave a series of forecasts for the next two decades. According to Hipponen, the importance of information security experts by 2038 will increase several times.^[1]

The presentation of the expert carried the name "Epokhalipsis: that waits for us in the next 20 years". In it Hipponen listed a number of key calls for security industry with which it is necessary to deal in the next two decades.

F-Secure predicts "эпохалипсис" and threat from Internet of Things

The so-called problem of 2038^[2]which is already compared to a so-called "problem of 2000" goes the first in the list.

The problem of 2038 is that in the old 32-bit systems which were issued to the middle of the 1990th time_t data type for storage of seconds in the form of signed int is used (32-bit whole signed). The latest date which can be presented by such format in the POSIX standard is 3:14:07 am, Tuesday, January 19, 2038 on Universal time (UTC).

Later time will force such data field to become negative, having kind of looped back thus time (as the negative number can be apprehended by programs as time in 1970 or 1901 depending on implementation). Wrong calculations or results can be as a result made.

The simple solution for a problem of 2038 does not exist. Change of determination like time_t on 64 bits will break binary compatibility of programs, the existing stored data and all another, time using representation in a binary type. And reduction of time_t in whole without sign can break a programs runtime which calculate time difference.

And though there is an active replacement of the old systems now, in 2010 hundreds of thousands of devices with 32-bit representation whole in time_t were put into operation. Whether will manage to replace them by 2038? It is a difficult question.

Hipponen noted that the measures taken before 2000 allowed to minimize Y2K problem, though did not neutralize it completely.

Till 2038 still far. Many think that we have still plenty of time that to correct everything, but I assure you, as a result we will lack time — Hipponen noted.

Notes