2.4.16: TCP shutdown generating infinite ACK storm

Jeremy Fitzhardinge (jeremy@goop.org)
02 Dec 2001 02:56:42 -0800


Hi,

I'm looking at my box and a server at Tom's Hardware pounding each other
with packets. It looks like Linux has got confused about sequence
numbers (or maybe the other end is confused?).

02:51:20.405848 ad.tomshardware.com.http > ixodes.goop.org.33708: . ack 1 win 17376 <nop,nop,timestamp 14994023 3826698> (DF)
02:51:20.405880 ixodes.goop.org.33708 > ad.tomshardware.com.http: . ack 4294920827 win 6432 <nop,nop,timestamp 3826706 14993505> (DF)
02:51:20.415964 ad.tomshardware.com.http > ixodes.goop.org.33708: . ack 1 win 17376 <nop,nop,timestamp 14994023 3826699> (DF)
02:51:20.415995 ixodes.goop.org.33708 > ad.tomshardware.com.http: . ack 4294920827 win 6432 <nop,nop,timestamp 3826707 14993505> (DF)
02:51:20.422607 ad.tomshardware.com.http > ixodes.goop.org.33708: . ack 1 win 17376 <nop,nop,timestamp 14994023 3826700> (DF)
02:51:20.422638 ixodes.goop.org.33708 > ad.tomshardware.com.http: . ack 4294920827 win 6432 <nop,nop,timestamp 3826707 14993505> (DF)
02:51:20.429027 ad.tomshardware.com.http > ixodes.goop.org.33708: . ack 1 win 17376 <nop,nop,timestamp 14994023 3826700> (DF)
02:51:20.429057 ixodes.goop.org.33708 > ad.tomshardware.com.http: . ack 4294920827 win 6432 <nop,nop,timestamp 3826708 14993505> (DF)
02:51:20.435654 ad.tomshardware.com.http > ixodes.goop.org.33708: . ack 1 win 17376 <nop,nop,timestamp 14994023 3826701> (DF)
02:51:20.435684 ixodes.goop.org.33708 > ad.tomshardware.com.http: . ack 4294920827 win 6432 <nop,nop,timestamp 3826709 14993505> (DF)
02:51:20.446010 ad.tomshardware.com.http > ixodes.goop.org.33708: . ack 1 win 17376 <nop,nop,timestamp 14994023 3826702> (DF)
02:51:20.446041 ixodes.goop.org.33708 > ad.tomshardware.com.http: . ack 4294920827 win 6432 <nop,nop,timestamp 3826710 14993505> (DF)
02:51:20.462525 ad.tomshardware.com.http > ixodes.goop.org.33708: . ack 1 win 17376 <nop,nop,timestamp 14994023 3826704> (DF)
02:51:20.462557 ixodes.goop.org.33708 > ad.tomshardware.com.http: . ack 4294920827 win 6432 <nop,nop,timestamp 3826711 14993505> (DF)
02:51:20.475581 ad.tomshardware.com.http > ixodes.goop.org.33708: . ack 1 win 17376 <nop,nop,timestamp 14994023 3826705> (DF)
02:51:20.475611 ixodes.goop.org.33708 > ad.tomshardware.com.http: . ack 4294920827 win 6432 <nop,nop,timestamp 3826713 14993505> (DF)
02:51:20.482239 ad.tomshardware.com.http > ixodes.goop.org.33708: . ack 1 win 17376 <nop,nop,timestamp 14994023 3826706> (DF)
02:51:20.482271 ixodes.goop.org.33708 > ad.tomshardware.com.http: . ack 4294920827 win 6432 <nop,nop,timestamp 3826713 14993505> (DF)
02:51:20.492100 ad.tomshardware.com.http > ixodes.goop.org.33708: . ack 1 win 17376 <nop,nop,timestamp 14994023 3826707> (DF)
[...]

Naturally, this looks bad. After a while it seemed to stop of its own
accord, I presume when something timed out of LAST_ACK. While it was
happening, there were two sockets ixising to ad.tomshardware.com:

tcp 1 1 ixodes.goop.org:33674 ad.tomshardware.co:http LAST_ACK
tcp 1 1 ixodes.goop.org:33708 ad.tomshardware.co:http LAST_ACK

I'm using 2.4.16 with no particularly special patches. The gateway
machine is another 2.4.16 box doing NAT with ipchains emulation.

Any other info needed?

J

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