The past is coming back: what problem awaits humanity in 2038

Although many people may not remember today, in 1999 there was a lot of anxiety about the arrival of the year 2000. The main fear was that during the transition from 99 to 00, computers would not be able to process the new date correctly and it would be displayed as 1900.

This could have caused computerized systems to stop working, and with that, a global catastrophe could have ensued. However, as it turned out, New Year's Eve 2000 went smoothly, thanks to extensive preparatory work aimed at avoiding such a scenario, IFL Science writes .

On January 19, 2038, computers are predicted to face the problem again - the day when the time that will last only until then will run out. This applies to systems that use 32-bit Unix time, which is the majority.

"A 32-bit integer can only store values between -2147483648 and 2147483647," explains cybersecurity company Tanium. This means that the maximum timestamp for such systems is 2147483647, which corresponds to January 19, 2038, 03:14:07 UTC.

Ці числа не є випадковими: хоча для людини 2147483648 може виглядати як звичайне число, для комп'ютера, що працює в двійковій системі, це величезний рубіж – момент, коли лічильник досягне значення 100 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000. For a 32-bit system, this is simply too big a number, so it will do the only thing it can - reset the counter.

"When the timestamp overflows, it becomes negative, which leads to errors in dates and times. For example, for the time 03:14:08 on January 20, 2038 in Unix time, the timestamp is 2147483648. Since this value is invalid, the system resets it to -2147483648, which corresponds to December 13, 1901, 20:45:52 UTC. This is the essence of the 2038 problem," the company explains.

Despite all the previous worries, we can hope that this time humanity has foreseen everything. The problem with the year 2038 has been known since 2006, when a similar error affected the AOL web server. Actually, the solution to this problem is quite simple and obvious: switch to 64-bit systems.

64-bit systems have enough space to store time values for billions of years in advance, even if you use high-precision (nanosecond) time.

But many databases, including relational and NoSQL, still use 32-bit time. Programs written in C-based languages such as C++ and PHP are also at risk. Devices running on Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS, as well as medical devices, industrial control systems at power plants and in transportation, cars with on-board computers, routers, etc. may be vulnerable.

This can have serious consequences.

"It is difficult to accurately assess our readiness. New operating systems already support 64-bit time, but the main problem lies in existing systems. The transition from 32-bit to 64-bit time values for operating systems is not so easy," the article says.

Simply put, switching to 64-bit time can lead to chaos. Although modern computer systems will be updated by 2038, the main problem will be old programs that are not updated.

Even if all 32-bit systems are upgraded, the secondary effects of such large-scale changes need to be considered and studied to avoid new problems.

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