Bug ID 568543: Syncookie mode is activated on wildcard virtuals

Last Modified: Apr 28, 2025

Affected Product(s):
BIG-IP LTM(all modules)

Known Affected Versions:
11.5.0, 11.5.1, 11.5.1 HF1, 11.5.1 HF2, 11.5.1 HF3, 11.5.1 HF4, 11.5.1 HF5, 11.5.1 HF6, 11.5.1 HF7, 11.5.1 HF8, 11.5.1 HF9, 11.5.1 HF10, 11.5.1 HF11, 11.5.2, 11.5.2 HF1, 11.5.3, 11.5.3 HF1, 11.5.3 HF2, 11.5.4, 11.5.4 HF1, 11.5.4 HF2, 11.6.0, 11.6.0 HF1, 11.6.0 HF2, 11.6.0 HF3, 11.6.0 HF4, 11.6.0 HF5, 11.6.0 HF6, 11.6.0 HF7, 11.6.0 HF8, 11.6.1, 11.6.1 HF1, 12.0.0, 12.0.0 HF1, 12.0.0 HF2, 12.0.0 HF3, 12.0.0 HF4, 12.1.0, 12.1.0 HF1, 12.1.0 HF2, 12.1.1, 12.1.1 HF1, 12.1.1 HF2, 12.1.2

Fixed In:
12.1.2 HF1, 11.6.1 HF2, 11.5.4 HF3

Opened: Jan 18, 2016

Severity: 3-Major

Symptoms

Syncookie mode can be activated with a wildcard virtual, even in the case where there is no SYN flood.

Impact

Syncookie mode is activated with high connection rates to a wildcard virtual.

Conditions

The default number of connections per second before activating syncookie mode is 1993. This value can be increased to a max of 4093. After this threshold is reached, then syncookie mode is activated. This is an insufficient maximum for wildcard virtuals, since they can have 30k+ connections per second.

Workaround

Break up the wildcard virtual into multiple virtuals to reduce the number of connections per virtual.

Fix Information

It is now possible to set the PvaSynCookies.Virtual.MaxSynCache DB variable to 64K (previous max was 4093)

Behavior Change

Guides & references

K10134038: F5 Bug Tracker Filter Names and Tips