Bugtraq mailing list archives

Re: ISS Internet Scanner Cannot be relied upon for conclusive


From: shaunl () NETCOMUK CO UK (Shaun Lowry)
Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1999 13:36:34 +0000


Daniele Orlandi [mailto:daniele () ORLANDI COM] writes:
All the timestamps should be recorded in GMT, all comparisons
should be made
relying on GMT time. The only thing that changes between DST
and NON DST is the
time shown to the user.

Changing saving time state is like changing time zone, 10:00
CET is the same GMT
time as 4:00 EST (it's only an example, I could be wrong).

I don't know that this is actually true on Windows NT; certainly
the time that's presented to the user seems to be wrong in certain
cases.  For example, a file created on 15/Feb/1999 at 13:08 GMT will,
after DST kicks in, be reported as being created on 15/Feb/1999 at 14:08

even though DST wasn't in force at that time!  I'm not sure how NT
goes about adjusting for DST but it either: incorrectly adjusts how it
displays dates to the user in this case, or it 'adjusts' when the epoch
was (either by changing it's current offset or resetting the system
clock).

As a rule, I don't rely on NT date stamps.

 Shaun.



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