Re: [PATCH 5.10 099/167] tcp: disable TFO blackhole logic by default

[Yuchung Cheng]

On Wed, Jul 28, 2021 at 3:12 AM Pavel Machek <pavel@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Hi!
>
> > [ Upstream commit 213ad73d06073b197a02476db3a4998e219ddb06 ]
> >
> > Multiple complaints have been raised from the TFO users on the internet
> > stating that the TFO blackhole logic is too aggressive and gets falsely
> > triggered too often.
> > (e.g. https://blog.apnic.net/2021/07/05/tcp-fast-open-not-so-fast/)
> > Considering that most middleboxes no longer drop TFO packets, we decide
> > to disable the blackhole logic by setting
> > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_fastopen_blackhole_timeout_set to 0 by
> > default.
>
> I understand this makes sense for mainline, but should we have this in
> stable? Somebody may still be using broken middlebox with their
> "stable" server.
Thank you Pavel for raising this issue. You made a good point.

The enabled-by-default policy has caused disruptions to applications.
We have received quite a few others over the years beside the cited
report. Other major TFO implementations (e.g. iOS, Windows) do not
have such mechanisms and seem to work fine.

On the other hand maybe we do not hear middlebox issues because this
mechanism is working. So I am okay to avoid applying to stable and
keep in net-next to test this new policy.

>
> Best regards,
>                                                                 Pavel
>
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