TcpMaxHalfOpen

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

Description

Determines how many connections the server can maintain in the half-open (SYN-RCVD) state before TCP/IP initiates SYN flooding attack protection. This entry is used only when SYN flooding attack protection is enabled on this server (that is, the value of SynAttackProtect is 1 and the value of TcpMaxConnectResponseRetransmissions is at least 2).

This entry establishes one of three configurable thresholds which, when exceeded, trigger TCP's SYN attack flooding protection feature. Because SYN flooding often results in many half-open connections, TCP interprets an elevated number of half-open connections to be a symptom of SYN flooding.

The other thresholds are:

• the number of connections that remain in the half-open (SYN-RCVD) state even after a connection request has been retransmitted exceeds the value of TcpMaxHalfOpenRetried;
• The number of connection requests the system refuses exceeds the value of TcpMaxPortsExhausted. The system must refuse all connection requests when its reserve of open connection ports runs out.

Note

The value of this entry should be greater than the value of TCPMaxHalfOpenRetried.

Windows 2000 does not add this entry to the registry. You can add it by editing the registry or by using a program that edits the registry.

Related Entries

SynAttackProtect

TcpMaxConnectResponseRetransmissions

TCPMaxHalfOpenRetried

TcpMaxPortsExhausted