diff --git a/doc/man-sections/generic-options.rst b/doc/man-sections/generic-options.rst
index 8b26cd1a..3e099e12 100644
--- a/doc/man-sections/generic-options.rst
+++ b/doc/man-sections/generic-options.rst
@@ -68,6 +68,8 @@ which mode OpenVPN is configured as.
     to the configuration if no other compression options are present.
   - 2.4.x or lower: The cipher in ``--cipher`` is appended to
     ``--data-ciphers``
+  - 2.3.x or lower: ``--data-cipher-fallback`` is automatically added with
+    the same cipher as ``--cipher``
 
 --config file
   Load additional config options from ``file`` where each line corresponds
diff --git a/src/openvpn/options.c b/src/openvpn/options.c
index 88ac5bed..f2fb6d64 100644
--- a/src/openvpn/options.c
+++ b/src/openvpn/options.c
@@ -3152,6 +3152,13 @@ options_set_backwards_compatible_options(struct options *o)
         append_cipher_to_ncp_list(o, o->ciphername);
     }
 
+    /* Versions < 2.4.0 additionally might be compiled with --enable-small and
+     * not have OCC strings required for "poor man's NCP" */
+    if (o->ciphername && need_compatibility_before(o, 20400))
+    {
+        o->enable_ncp_fallback = true;
+    }
+
     /* Compression is deprecated and we do not want to announce support for it
      * by default anymore, additionally DCO breaks with compression.
      *