ZyXEL Communications ZyWALL5UTM 4.0 User Manual

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ZyWALL 5/35/70 Series User’s Guide
Chapter 11 Firewall Screens
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When the rate of new connection attempts rises above a threshold (one-minute high), the 
ZyWALL starts deleting half-open sessions as required to accommodate new connection 
requests. The ZyWALL continues to delete half-open sessions as necessary, until the rate of 
new connection attempts drops below another threshold (one-minute low). The rate is the 
number of new attempts detected in the last one-minute sample period.
11.10.2.1  TCP Maximum Incomplete and Blocking Time
An unusually high number of half-open sessions with the same destination host address could 
indicate that a Denial of Service attack is being launched against the host. 
Whenever the number of half-open sessions with the same destination host address rises above 
a threshold (TCP Maximum Incomplete), the ZyWALL starts deleting half-open sessions 
according to one of the following methods:
If the Blocking Time timeout is 0 (the default), then the ZyWALL deletes the oldest 
existing half-open session for the host for every new connection request to the host. This 
ensures that the number of half-open sessions to a given host will never exceed the 
threshold. 
If the Blocking Time timeout is greater than 0, then the ZyWALL blocks all new 
connection requests to the host giving the server time to handle the present connections. 
The ZyWALL continues to block all new connection requests until the Blocking Time 
expires. 
The ZyWALL also sends alerts whenever TCP Maximum Incomplete is exceeded. The 
global values specified for the threshold and timeout apply to all TCP connections. Click 
SECURITY, FIREWALL and then the Threshold tab to bring up the next screen.