However, that 1% translates to about 8.5 million devices, causing global problems. Microsoft said it sent hundreds of engineers and experts to help customers fix their affected services. They also worked directly with CrowdStrike to find a solution, and CrowdStrike released a statement explaining the technical issues.
The problem started with a configuration file in an update for CrowdStrike's Falcon platform. This file caused a logic error, leading to a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) loop on Windows systems running Falcon sensor software. The update was supposed to target new, malicious named pipes used in cyberattacks but instead caused major disruptions.
CrowdStrike has now fixed the error with another update, and Microsoft released a recovery tool to remove the faulty file. Before this tool was available, administrators had to manually remove the file by rebooting affected Windows devices into Safe Mode or the Recovery Environment.
People are questioning how such an update was allowed into critical Windows systems, leading to what might be one of the worst tech outages ever. Former Microsoft engineer David W Plummer tweeted about how Windows debugging was handled in his time and how this event is different.
The issue was caused by a CrowdStrike driver that passed Microsoft's testing but could still download and run p-code not signed by Microsoft. This means a third-party driver can cause problems even if Microsoft's updates go through thorough testing and certification.
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