[Bro] Event for syn-ack packet

Vern Paxson vern at icir.org
Wed May 23 10:55:49 PDT 2012


> If someone tries to open up several half open connections to our host, how
> will we know if we don't distinguish between SYN-ACK and ACK ?

I'm not sure I understand your concern here.  Connections are identified
by their five-tuple.  If the five-tuple for an active connection is reused,
the two instances will be treated as a single connection; that would be
the case regardless of whether the connection has seen a 2-packet SYN
exchange or a full 3-way handshake.

In terms of TCP semantics, a connection that's only had a 2-packet SYN
exchange is still active, and shouldn't be reused.  If the handshake
never completes, it will eventually be torn down with a RST - which will
also cause Bro to consider it no longer active.

		Vern



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