diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/net/mptcp/mptcp_join.sh b/tools/testing/selftests/net/mptcp/mptcp_join.sh
index 675b92a6bfda3..77b359a49a470 100755
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/net/mptcp/mptcp_join.sh
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/net/mptcp/mptcp_join.sh
@@ -799,6 +799,7 @@ chk_join_nr()
 	local ack_nr=$4
 	local count
 	local dump_stats
+	local with_cookie
 
 	printf "%02u %-36s %s" "$TEST_COUNT" "$msg" "syn"
 	count=`ip netns exec $ns1 nstat -as | grep MPTcpExtMPJoinSynRx | awk '{print $2}'`
@@ -812,12 +813,20 @@ chk_join_nr()
 	fi
 
 	echo -n " - synack"
+	with_cookie=`ip netns exec $ns2 sysctl -n net.ipv4.tcp_syncookies`
 	count=`ip netns exec $ns2 nstat -as | grep MPTcpExtMPJoinSynAckRx | awk '{print $2}'`
 	[ -z "$count" ] && count=0
 	if [ "$count" != "$syn_ack_nr" ]; then
-		echo "[fail] got $count JOIN[s] synack expected $syn_ack_nr"
-		ret=1
-		dump_stats=1
+		# simult connections exceeding the limit with cookie enabled could go up to
+		# synack validation as the conn limit can be enforced reliably only after
+		# the subflow creation
+		if [ "$with_cookie" = 2 ] && [ "$count" -gt "$syn_ack_nr" ] && [ "$count" -le "$syn_nr" ]; then
+			echo -n "[ ok ]"
+		else
+			echo "[fail] got $count JOIN[s] synack expected $syn_ack_nr"
+			ret=1
+			dump_stats=1
+		fi
 	else
 		echo -n "[ ok ]"
 	fi