Is ntpd software considered “munitions” by the U.S. government?
Yes, and therefore requires a license to export outside of U.S. and Canada. This law also applies to re-export, Canadians, and to foreign branches or subsidiaries of U.S. companies. Why is ntpd software considered munitions? Because it contains the DES encryption algorithm (source file authdes.c). This is true even though DES code is easily available throughout the world and DES is easily cracked by brute-force attack (although triple DES can’t be cracked). Anyway, to protect yourself and Sun legally, DES can be disabled in the makefile configuration. This is important to note if you’re building or distributing another version of ntpd.
