Print Download PDF Send Feedback

Previous

Next

Enhanced 3-Way TCP Handshake Enforcement

The standard enforcement for a 3-way handshake that initiates a TCP connection provides adequate security by guaranteeing one-directional stickiness. This means that it ensures that the SYN-ACK will always arrive after the SYN. However, it does not guarantee that the ACK will always arrive after the SYN-ACK, or that the first data packet will arrive after the ACK.

If you wish to have stricter policy that denies all out-of-state packets, you can configure the synchronization mechanism so that all the TCP connection initiation packets arrive in the right sequence (SYN, SYN-ACK, ACK, followed by the data). The price for this extra security is a considerable delay in connection establishment.

To enable enhanced enforcement, use the GuiDBedit Tool (see sk13009) to change the sync_tcp_handshake_mode property from minimal_sync (default value) to complete_sync.