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Date:      Thu, 18 Sep 2025 20:22:34 +0200
From:      Michael Tuexen <michael.tuexen@lurchi.franken.de>
To:        Tilnel <deng1991816@gmail.com>
Cc:        freebsd-net@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Two different places between TCP socket behavior and RFC documents
Message-ID:  <AF0E49E6-1CC1-41EF-94C0-23E1D08327A8@lurchi.franken.de>
In-Reply-To: <CADvKEf_8pRXXNJcivm-sW=1cWmiZ0%2BdU%2BJks9jY8oiB30gAcQA@mail.gmail.com>
References:  <CADvKEf-vkJ-eKpwe_-x-z0pUTyx2sZRE3v7%2BZRV7cP_pq7h__w@mail.gmail.com> <38DCEDDE-7BAB-4A1D-ACB4-6B2E8FCEB6CE@lurchi.franken.de> <CADvKEf_8pRXXNJcivm-sW=1cWmiZ0%2BdU%2BJks9jY8oiB30gAcQA@mail.gmail.com>

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> On 18. Sep 2025, at 18:35, Tilnel <deng1991816@gmail.com> wrote:
>=20
> On Thu, Sep 18, 2025 at 6:25=E2=80=AFPM Michael Tuexen
> <michael.tuexen@lurchi.franken.de> wrote:
>>> 2. Sending RST to segment with old sequence SYN-RECEIVED instead of
>>> acknowledgement
>>> According to RFC793 page 69: If an incoming segment is not =
acceptable, an
>>> acknowledgement should be sent in reply. (here `should` is not =
capitalized).
>>> This should be applied to all states including and after =
SYN-RECEIVED. But it's
>>> not the case with FreeBSD TCP socket. I found this with manually =
constructed TCP
>>> segment:
>>> A > B: Flags [S], seq 1, win 8192, length 0
>>> B > A: Flags [S.], seq 4054810353, ack 2, win 65535, length 0
>>> A > B: Flags [.], ack 1, win 8192, length 0
>>> B > A: Flags [R], seq 4054810354, win 0, length 0
>> I am not sure which scenario are you considering. Could you provide =
SEG.SEQ
>> for the this TCP segment?
>>> Expected behavior is to send an empty ack:
>>> A > B: Flags [S], seq 1, win 8192, length 0
>>> B > A: Flags [S.], seq 3620804602, ack 2, win 65495, length 0
>>> A > B: Flags [.], ack 1, win 8192, length 0
>>> B > A: Flags [.], ack 1, win 65495, length 0
>>> Which is the case with Linux.
>=20
> I'd be happy to explain the scenario in more detail.
> Consider the following TCP handshake sequence:
> 1. Socket A sends a SYN segment: <CTL=3DSYN><SEQ=3Dx> to Socket B, =
which is in the
>   TCP_LISTEN state.
> 2. Socket B transitions to TCP_SYN_RECV and responds with
>   <CTL=3DSYN,ACK><SEQ=3Dy><ACK=3Dx+1>.
> 3. Instead of sending the expected <CTL=3DACK><SEQ=3Dx+1><ACK=3Dy+1> =
to complete the
>   three-way handshake, Socket A incorrectly sends =
<CTL=3DACK><SEQ=3Dx><ACK=3Dy+1>.
> According to the RFC, the appropriate response to such a malformed ACK =
should be
> an empty ACK segment: <CTL=3DACK><SEQ=3Dy+1><ACK=3Dx+1>. After that, =
Socket B should
> either wait for a valid ACK or retransmit the SYN-ACK if necessary.
> However, in FreeBSD=E2=80=99s current implementation, a RST segment is =
sent instead:
> <CTL=3DRST><SEQ=3Dy+1>, which aborts the connection prematurely.
> This behavior appears to deviate from the RFC guidance and may lead to
> unnecessary connection resets in edge cases.
Hi Tilnel,

OK, now I understand your scenario. Let me test it and come back to you.
Give me a day or two.

Best regards
Michael
> Best regards
> Tilnel




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