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The U.S. Coast Guard has issued a statement on a possible GPS software bug that could send systems back to 2002.
The potential vulnerability may cause an event of the “GPS Week Number Rollover” type to occur within systems utilizing Network Timing Protocol Daemon (NTPD) and GPS Daemon (GPSD) software.
On Oct. 24, a bug in older versions of the software may trigger the system date to roll back to sometime in March 2002. All systems running the most recent software update, version 3.23.1 (released Sept. 21) should be unaffected.
While this is not a problem with GPS, this has the potential to cause significant impact, the Coast Guard stated. All networks operating are encouraged to verify that they are using the most recent version (3.23.1) and report any problems to the Navigation Center watch by phone 703-313-5900 or by email at TIS-PF-NISWS@uscg.mil.