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CrowdStrike downtime apparently caused by update that replaced a file with 42kb of zeroes (twiiit.com)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by Aatube@kbin.melroy.org to c/technology@lemmy.world

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…according to a Twitter post by the Chief Informational Security Officer of Grand Canyon Education.

So, does anyone else find it odd that the file that caused everything CrowdStrike to freak out, C-00000291-
00000000-00000032.sys was 42KB of blank/null values, while the replacement file C-00000291-00000000-
00000.033.sys was 35KB and looked like a normal, if not obfuscated sys/.conf file?

Also, apparently CrowdStrike had at least 5 hours to work on the problem between the time it was discovered and the time it was fixed.

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[-] diffusive@lemmy.world 159 points 4 months ago

If I had to bet my money, a bad machine with corrupted memory pushed the file at a very final stage of the release.

The astonishing fact is that for a security software I would expect all files being verified against a signature (that would have prevented this issue and some kinds of attacks

[-] jlh@lemmy.jlh.name 23 points 4 months ago

Windows kernel drivers are signed by Microsoft. They must have rubber stamped this for this to go through, though.

[-] diffusive@lemmy.world 69 points 4 months ago

This was not the driver, it was a config file or something read by the driver. Now having a driver in kernel space depending on a config on a regular path is another fuck up

[-] jlh@lemmy.jlh.name 8 points 4 months ago

isn't .sys a driver?

[-] Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 28 points 4 months ago

Not just drivers, no https://fileinfo.com/extension/sys

[-] Evilcoleslaw@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

So yes, .sys is by convention on Windows is for a kernel mode driver. However, Crowdstrike specifically uses .sys for non-driver files and this specifically was not a driver.

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this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2024

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