Thousands of Windows computers blocked by a CrowdStrike update of Falcon Sensor

BOGDAN-FLORIN PAUL | JULY 19, 2024

Following a flawed update of the Falcon Sensor program of CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc., an American cyber security company based in Austin, Texas, thousands of computers around the world, used by airports, banks, hospitals and other companies were blocked, and the Windows operating system could no longer start.

The error displayed by a blocked Windows computer, due to a faulty update of the Falcon Sensor program of CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc.

2,400 flights across the US were canceled on Friday, July 19, due to Windows computers crashes.

The computers froze displaying the so-called "Blue screen of death", a screen already famous for the Microsoft Windows operating system crashes.

The message displayed by the blocked computers indicates:

Stop code: PAGE FAULT IN NONPAGED AREA
What failed: csagent.sys

The problem arose due to an incompatibility between an update of the Falcon Sensor program, used by many Fortune 500 companies for scanning files saved in the cloud, with an update of the Windows operating system.

Mac and Linux computers were not affected.

CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. announced that the blocking of the computers did not occur as a result of a security incident or a cyber attack, and admitted that the problem came from a faulty update of its software product, caused by a quality control error.

Various ways to reboot affected computers have been announced, e.g. by starting the computer in the command line and deleting the C-00000291*.sys file from the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike directory, or by renaming the directory called "CrowdStrike" from the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\ location, e.g. in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike_DEFECT

Following this problem, CrowdStrike's share price on the stock exchange registered significant decreases.

The irony of things is that the name of the company, CrowdStrike, suggests a "Strike to the Crowd". And this is exactly what they did.

CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. conducts cyber security investigations for the US government.

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