CrowdStrike Says Global IT Outage Impacting Windows PCs, But Mac and Linux Hosts Not Affected

A widespread system failure is currently affecting numerous Windows devices globally, causing critical boot failures across various industries, including banks, rail networks, airlines, retailers, broadcasters, healthcare, and many more sectors. The issue, manifesting as a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), is preventing computers from starting up properly and forcing them into continuous recovery cycles.

bsod
The cause of the failure has been identified as an update to CrowdStrike Falcon antivirus software installed on Windows 10 PCs, but Mac and Linux machines running the same cybersecurity software have been spared. CrowdStrike, which specializes in endpoint security protection for corporate networks, has just released the following statement:

"CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.

"Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack.

"The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed.

"We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website.

"We further recommend organisations ensure they're communicating with CrowdStrike representatives through official channels.

"Our team is fully mobilized to ensure the security and stability of CrowdStrike customers."

Unfortunately, the nature of the problem means that fixing it isn't as simple as installing a patch. The workaround to break the infinite boot cycle on affected Windows machines involves manually booting into safe mode, navigating to the CrowdStrike directory, and deleting the system file that caused the problem. As such, it could be a while before all services impacted by the content update are back up and running.

For those who have a Windows machine that has succumbed to the botched update (now rolled back), CrowdStrike has outlined the following steps system admins need to take to get back up and running:

  1. Boot Windows into Safe Mode or the Windows Recovery Environment.
  2. Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike directory.
  3. Locate the file matching 'C-00000291*.sys', and delete it.
  4. Boot the host normally.

As expected, Apple's system status webpage shows no issues with its services, however there have been scattered reports of problems with contactless payments across some businesses, which could prevent Apple Pay transactions from being processed.

Tag: Windows

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Top Rated Comments

Mrkevinfinnerty Avatar
13 months ago
Troubleshooting steps

1. Shut down your PC
2. Get a mac.
Score: 161 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cjsuk Avatar
13 months ago
Not sure why people are crapping on Microsoft here. The issue is crowdstrike. They have Linux and Mac versions of Falcon sensor too. They just happened to screw up the windows version today and push it to production past everyone’s security controls.

This could be Apple or Linux tomorrow.
Score: 76 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Loismustdie1 Avatar
13 months ago
Pour one out for us IT folks. We are NOT okay this morning and for some of us, very sleep deprived.
Score: 62 Votes (Like | Disagree)
fatTribble Avatar
13 months ago
As a software engineer who has been through many releases, some better than others, I can imagine the chaos going on behind the scenes. Of course I feel for all those impacted too.
Score: 48 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Chet-NYC Avatar
13 months ago
I was able to do the daily transaction update my Mac version of Quicken this morning, but not the Windows version.

Apple for the win. Again.
Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
picpicmac Avatar
13 months ago
So this is how it all ends...
Score: 32 Votes (Like | Disagree)