Of the 97 systems and formats tracked here, 57 will fail at or before their deadline unless something changes. Here they are by type, with the highest-impact ones first. Pick a subtype to see just those.
15 at risk · 3 depend on version
18 at risk · 3 depend on version · 8 not affected
10 at risk · 3 depend on version · 8 not affected
4 at risk · 3 not affected
3 at risk · 4 not affected
4 at risk · 2 depend on version · 3 not affected
3 at risk · 1 depend on version · 2 not affected
# the last second a signed 32-bit counter can hold
$ date -u -d @2147483647
Tue Jan 19 03:14:07 UTC 2038
# where it lands one second later
$ date -u -d @-2147483648
Fri Dec 13 20:45:52 UTC 1901Many computers count time as the number of seconds since 1 January 1970. Where that count is stored in a signed 32-bit number, it runs out at . One second later the clock wraps around and the computer thinks it is 1901.
Read the full explanation →A signed 32-bit integer tops out at . Counting that many seconds from 1 January 1970 reaches 2038. Adding one more flips the sign bit, and the value becomes , which is 13 December 1901, 20:45:52 UTC.
Glossary of terms →Current 64-bit desktops, servers and phones are largely fixed. The risk is in 32-bit embedded devices, old binaries that can't be rebuilt, database columns, file formats and protocols that store 32-bit time, and any software that calculates dates past 2038 today.
Assess your exposure →How Unix time works, why 2038, and what breaks.
Find 32-bit time in code, binaries and data, then remediate.
A checklist for inventory, suppliers, ownership and deadlines.
What happened in 2000, what it cost, and what carries over.
After a power-supply swap, a GPS timing card's date reset to 2006. About 45% of Telstra mobile calls and data sessions were affected, and hundreds of Triple Zero calls failed. It shows how a wrong date spreads through a timing chain.
GPS week rollover →Stan Kaminsky lists at-risk OT and IoT device classes, from building automation to medical equipment. It also covers NTP and GPS time manipulation as ways to trigger failures early, with testing advice.
Devices & embedded →Pedro Umbelino reports manipulating NTP and GPS time in an ICS lab to cause crashes, corrupted logs and lockouts. Two of the findings became CISA advisories in 2025.
Incidents so far →Richard Speed reports how volunteers at The National Museum of Computing moved a PDP-11/73's clock forward. It worked in 2036, but from the start of 2037 any program calling the time function crashed. The machine is not Unix, but it has a 1982 C compiler.
Zoe Skyforest's explainer: 64-bit time gives roughly 292 billion years of range. Some file-system fixes only defer the problem, to 2446 for ext4 and 2486 for XFS.
File systems →Debian 13 "trixie" moved its 32-bit ports to a 64-bit time_t, except i386, which stays 32-bit for legacy software.
The Unix epoch begins: 1 January 1970, 00:00:00 UTC.
The Y2K rollover passes with few major failures after years of worldwide remediation. Y2K timeline →
First widely reported 2038 bug: AOLserver hangs when a one-billion-second timeout pushes dates past 2038. Incidents →
Second GPS week-number rollover (6 April). A New York City network, some aircraft and Australian weather-balloon launches are disrupted. GPS rollover →
Linux 5.6 is the first kernel that 32-bit systems can use to run past 2038. musl 1.2.0 moves all 32-bit platforms to 64-bit time.
POSIX.1-2024 requires time_t to be at least 64 bits. Debian and Ubuntu 24.04 move 32-bit ARM to 64-bit time.
The first CVEs and government advisories for 2038 failures in industrial devices (WAGO, Dover Fueling Solutions, Veeder-Root).
Now: about 11 years to go. Devices installed today may still be in service in 2038.
7 February, 06:28:16 UTC: the NTP 32-bit seconds field wraps (era 0 → era 1). NTP era 2036 →
19 January, 03:14:07 UTC: signed 32-bit Unix time overflows.
20–21 November: the third GPS week-number rollover.
7 February, 06:28:15 UTC: unsigned 32-bit Unix time overflows, the limit of the most common stop-gap fix. 2106 & beyond →
Software that calculates dates in the future, such as timeouts, certificates, cookies and schedules, hits 2038 years early. These are documented cases.
A "never time out" setting of 1,000,000,000 seconds pushed calculated dates past 2038, and servers hung. It is often described as the first real 2038 bug.
SourceA US retailer's private certificate authority produced a certificate valid "from 2037 to 1910". Combined with an NTP bug that made clocks jump, VPNs at about 100 sites failed. It was reported in 2024.
SourceMicrosoft Exchange stored a date-shaped version number (2201010001) in a signed 32-bit integer. On 1 January 2022 it overflowed and mail stuck in queues worldwide. It is the same overflow, though not Unix time.
SourceCERT@VDE's first 2038-specific advisory (CVE-2025-0101): a user can set the date past the 32-bit limit and controller functions may stop. Fixed in firmware 4.10.0.
SourceCISA advisories for Dover ProGauge (CVE-2025-55068) and Veeder-Root TLS4B (CVE-2025-55067). Changing the clock causes authentication failures and denial of service. On the TLS4B the clock "resets to December 13, 1901".
SourceA clock-forward test at The National Museum of Computing crashed every program that called the time function from the start of 2037, a year early.
SourceThe most serious US Y2K failure was caused by the fix. A patched ground station for reconnaissance satellites failed at the rollover, and a backup ran at reduced capacity until repairs on 2 January.
Read moreThe official US timekeeper's countdown page showed "Jan. 1, 19100" for about 45 minutes. The cause was an outdated script on a third-party host. The master clock itself was fine.
Read moreA New York video-store customer was billed about $91,000 for a tape the system thought was 100 years overdue.
Read moreA Sheffield hospital blamed the millennium bug for wrong Down's syndrome screening results for about 150 women. Some high-risk women were told they were low-risk, and the error ran for about five months.
Read moreA German man's bank account was credited with about $6 million under a transaction date of 30 December 1899, which was likely a Y2K bug.
Read moreMany Y2K fixes "windowed" two-digit years around a pivot of 20. On 1 January 2020 they broke: WWE 2K20 crashed at midnight, and New York parking meters were reported rejecting cards. Stop-gap fixes have deadlines too.
Read moreThe Year 2038 problem comes from storing Unix time in a signed 32-bit integer.
Each topic page starts with a 2038 status summary, then goes into the detail. Ratings are relative to 2038, and every page cites its sources.
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