Cisco Security Monitoring, Analysis and Response System

February 27, 2007

NOTICE:

THIS FIELD NOTICE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS AND DOES NOT IMPLY ANY KIND OF GUARANTEE OR WARRANTY, INCLUDING THE WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY. YOUR USE OF THE INFORMATION ON THE FIELD NOTICE OR MATERIALS LINKED FROM THE FIELD NOTICE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. CISCO RESERVES THE RIGHT TO CHANGE OR UPDATE THIS FIELD NOTICE AT ANY TIME.

Products Affected

Problem Description

New U.S. Daylight Savings Times rules go into effect in March 2007. Consequently, customers whose network components rely on the default CS-MARS U.S. clock settings will be affected by the following problem.

For operating systems that have not been updated with the new U.S. DST policy changes, timestamps will exhibit a one hour time clock offset lasting three weeks beginning at 2 A.M. on the second Sunday in March of 2007. They will also exhibit a one hour time clock offset lasting one week beginning at 2 A.M. on the first Sunday in November.

Any time-dependent applications not running the patched release of CS-MARS will be affected by this problem.

Background

On August 8, 2005, President Bush signed into law the Energy Policy Act, which extends DST by four weeks from the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November. The Secretary of Energy will report the impact of this change to Congress, and then Congress retains the right to resume the 2005 DST schedule once the Department of Energy study is complete. This law takes effect on March 1, 2007.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005, bill number H.R.6.ENR, can be found at The Library of Congress, THOMAS. Search for "daylight savings" to find the Act in various stages.

Problem Symptoms

The CS-MARS will display the incorrect U.S. local time when the new U.S. Daylight Savings Time begins.

Workaround/Solution

Solution:

Upgrade to: csmars-4.2.4.2428.pkg. All prior versions will be affected by the change in DST.

Publish date: 14-Feb-2007.

It can be downloaded at the Cisco CS-MARS Software Download (registered customers only) page.

Workaround: There is no workaround other than to upgrade.

Revision History

For More Information

If you require further assistance, or if you have any further questions regarding this field notice, please contact the Cisco Systems Technical Assistance Center (TAC) by one of the following methods:

• Open a service request on Cisco.com
• By email
• By telephone

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