A British online IT newspaper is reporting a bug in a LINUX subroutine that deals with GPS/GNSS timestamps is set to strike this coming Sunday. The effect of the bug will be that the routine will report the date portion of the timestamp as being 19 years ago.
Hard to tell whether this is used in any drones, and whether the patched version is being used, or even whether it matters.
Here's a snippet or two and the link to the article below. The paranoid may want to avoid flying Sunday... although in all likelihood this is a nothingburger.
"Come Sunday, October 24, 2021, those using applications that rely on gpsd for handling time data may find that they're living 1,024 weeks – 19.6 years – in the past.
A bug in gpsd that rolls clocks back to March, 2002, is set to strike this coming weekend.
The programming blunder was identified on July 24, 2021, and the errant code commit, written two years ago, has since been fixed. Now it's just a matter of making sure that every application and device deploying gpsd has applied the patch."
and
"It's available in Android, Linux, macOS, and other Unix-like operating systems. The gpsd website says the software shows up in mobile embedded systems like UAVs..."
www.theregister.com
This is what is so much fun about LINUX, which is developed and maintained by, in many cases, volunteers. The guy who wrote and maintains this routine is a retired gent in Omaha Nebraska.
Hard to tell whether this is used in any drones, and whether the patched version is being used, or even whether it matters.
Here's a snippet or two and the link to the article below. The paranoid may want to avoid flying Sunday... although in all likelihood this is a nothingburger.
"Come Sunday, October 24, 2021, those using applications that rely on gpsd for handling time data may find that they're living 1,024 weeks – 19.6 years – in the past.
A bug in gpsd that rolls clocks back to March, 2002, is set to strike this coming weekend.
The programming blunder was identified on July 24, 2021, and the errant code commit, written two years ago, has since been fixed. Now it's just a matter of making sure that every application and device deploying gpsd has applied the patch."
and
"It's available in Android, Linux, macOS, and other Unix-like operating systems. The gpsd website says the software shows up in mobile embedded systems like UAVs..."
Why your app or gadget may stop working Sunday: A gpsd bug
Alternative headline: Yet another widely used project maintained thanklessly by 'some random person in Nebraska'
www.theregister.com
This is what is so much fun about LINUX, which is developed and maintained by, in many cases, volunteers. The guy who wrote and maintains this routine is a retired gent in Omaha Nebraska.
