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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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[-] Socsa@sh.itjust.works 37 points 4 months ago

The fact that a single bad file can cause a kernel panic like this tells you everything you need to know about using this kind of integrated security product. Crowdstrike is apparently a rootkit, and windows apparently has zero execution integrity.

[-] areyouevenreal@lemm.ee 23 points 4 months ago

Yeah pretty much all security products need kernel level access unfortunately. The Linux ones including crowdstrike and also the Open Source tools SELinux and AppArmor all need some kind of kernel module in order to work.

[-] uis@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago

At least SELinux doesn't crash on bad config file

[-] areyouevenreal@lemm.ee 15 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I am not praising crowdstrike here. They fucked up big time. I am saying that the concept of security software needing kernel access isn't that unheard of, and is unfortunately necessary for a reason. There is only so much a security thing can do without that kernel level access.

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this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2024

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