【1980 Archives】

CrowdStrike has released further details Wednesday980 Archivesthe software issue that caused mass outageswhile taking down 8.5 million Windows machines. 

The company posteda post incident review (PIR) on its website detailing the problem and outlined steps on how it can improve moving forward. You can read through the entire PIR, but it's not particularly intended for casual readers — it's primarily for the technical folks.

So what happened, exactly?

The TL;DRis that CrowdStrike sent out Rapid Response Content — an updatedesigned to respond to the changing threat landscape — but there was a bug in its Content Validator. Despite this, the update, which contained the problematic content data, rolled out to customers. The issue “resulted in an out-of-bounds memory read” which, in turn, led to Windows crashing (i.e., showing the dreaded Blue Screen of Death).

Because so many companies used CrowdStrike, the miniscule error ended up being a massive issue. It was a small 40KB file that caused the problem,the Vergenoted. That little mistake had the airline, healthcare, and banking industries out of commission. 

• It’s 4 days later and Delta is still affected by the CrowdStrike outage. Here’s why.
• Microsoft says EU rules made CrowdStrike outage possible
• Microsoft releases easier CrowdStrike fix
• CrowdStrike outage 3 days later: Where does everything stand now?
• CrowdStrike outage is still causing hundreds of flight cancellations daily

How does the PIR detail plans to prevent such issues in the future? It will increase testing for Rapid Response Content, add new checks for the Content Validator, and change the way it rolls out Rapid Response Content.

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