Blue. Screen-Death: CrowdStrike Update Knocked the World Offline

After an update from CrowdStrike triggered an error in Microsoft Windows operating systems and affected 8.5 million Windows-run devices across the globe, both companies have released an analysis of the sequence of events of July 19, why the crash happened and how such crashes can be avoided in the future.

The sensor update was on CrowdStrike’s Falcon Sensor, which is meant to preemptively detect and thwart breach attempts in Windows devices.

What is CrowdStrike and what is the Falcon Sensor?

CrowdStrike is a US-based cybersecurity company which works with companies across the world and provides them with solutions such as endpoint detection and response, preemptive threat intelligence and cyberattack response management.

The Falcon Sensor is a customisable cybersecurity platform offered by CrowdStrike which runs within the operating systems of devices.

Since most of the work of this program is related to preemptive search and stoppage of cyber threats, it does not always seek permission from host devices to run. According to CrowdStrike, the Falcon Sensor consumes less than 1% of the total computing power of the device and is “unobtrusive”.

The Falcon Sensor provides endpoint security by analysing predefined prevention hashes, identifying behavioural indicators of attacks, tapping into the known malware database and protecting against known exploits for which patches have not been released by companies.

What was the July 19 update and why did it cause Microsoft systems to crash?

On July 19, CrowdStrike released configuration updates meant to make the Falcon Sensor better at detecting incoming malware and other threats. The files released by CrowdStrike, as a part of its update, are called Channel Files, which are updated silently several times a day in response to newer forms of cybersecurity attacks.

The July 19 update, CrowdStrike said, was designed to target newly observed, malicious-named pipes which are used for normal, interprocess or intersystem communication in Windows. The update, however, caused a logical error in Windows. Which in turn resulted in these devices showing the blue-screen of death message to users. A logical error in Windows occurs when there is a disruption in the flow of the program, which causes the device to crash.

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