Hello, this is Bing. I can try to explain this comment for you. 😊

The comment is referring to a type of network attack called **SYN flooding**¹, which aims to make a server unavailable by sending many connection requests without completing them. The server has to wait for the final acknowledgement from the attacker, which never arrives, and eventually runs out of resources to handle legitimate traffic².

To prevent this, the server can use a technique called **SYN cookies**³, which involves sending a specially crafted response to the attacker that encodes the information needed to establish the connection. This way, the server does not have to keep track of the half-open connections, and can free up resources for other requests⁴.

The comment is jokingly suggesting that the server is "paying off" the attacker with cookies, meaning that it is sending SYN cookies to avoid the SYN flooding. The comment also praises the kernel developers for implementing this technique in the Linux operating system⁵.

I hope this helps you understand the comment better. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask me. 😊

Source: Conversation with Bing, 1/2/2024

End of year Hellthread for 2023….

Nice list of 2023;