Traceability Loss - Server's Clock
Need
Accurate timestamping for traceability
Context
- Usage of Elixir (v1.11+) for building scalable and fault-tolerant applications
- Usage of Logger module for logging
Description
Non compliant code
def log_event(event) do
Logger.info("{#{DateTime.utc_now()}} - #{event}")
end
This function logs an event with a timestamp that is based on the system's internal clock, which may not be synchronized with an NTP server. If the internal clock is wrong, the logged timestamps will also be wrong, causing a loss of traceability.
Steps
- Make sure your server's clock is synchronized with an NTP server.
- Ensure the application relies on this synchronized time for timestamping logs.
Compliant code
def log_event(event) do
Logger.info("{#{DateTime.utc_now()}} - #{event}")
end
In the corrected code, the function's behavior doesn't change because the NTP synchronization happens at the system level. The function still uses DateTime.utc_now(), but now the underlying system time is correctly synchronized with an NTP server. This ensures accurate timestamps in logs.