Centos 7 TCP/IP originating socket receiving 0 byte message with no FIN

This is a mature networking product running CentOS 7 (3.10). In this particular configuration, it establishes permanent outgoing TCP/IP connections which should only terminate under an error condition. We are sporadically receiving a 0 byte message with no error, which causes us to disconnect. We interpret this as an EOF from the peer (even though a FIN was not received) and close our socket which sends out a FIN. The question is, is it possible that this 0 length message is somehow not a result of the peer closing its socket but somehow an artifact of the TCP/IP stack. When we replace this product with an older version running kernel version 3.3, in the same network, we do not see this behavior. Therefore attributing this to some change in the TCP/IP stack between these two versions. Appreciate any advice.
Thank you,
ArtG1