Real men test in production… The truth about the CrowdStrike disaster

Summary

In a recent incident reminiscent of the Y2K bug, millions of Windows machines crashed due to a faulty update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, affecting 8.5 million devices. The video explores possible causes, from a simple coding error to a potential cyber attack or conspiracy. It delves into technical details, revealing a logic error in a channel file update that led to the system crash, and discusses the implications of running critical software without stringent quality control measures. The video also humorously speculates on other theories, including a multi-dimensional plot and the promotion of a different programming language for driver development.

Takeaways

• 💻 On July 22, 2024, millions of Windows machines crashed due to a faulty update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, affecting 8.5 million devices.
• 🔄 The incident is eerily similar to a 2010 McAfee antivirus update that caused a widespread outage, with the same CTO, George Kurtz, involved in both events.
• 👷‍♂️ CrowdStrike's software, Falcon Sensor, operates in the privileged 'ring zero' space, typically reserved for Microsoft, and requires a special certification from Microsoft.
• 🛑 The crash was caused by a logic error in an update to a configuration file, leading to a system-wide failure, which is unusual for application crashes.
• 👨‍💻 A professional C++ programmer hypothesized that the issue was due to a null pointer dereference, a common coding mistake that should have been caught.
• 🔍 The community noted that the code may have been flawed for a while, and the problematic configuration file update was the final straw that exposed the issue.
• 🚫 The incident highlights the importance of robust quality assurance processes in software development, especially for critical systems.
• 💡 The video suggests that the root cause of the disaster was likely a lack of quality control within CrowdStrike, rather than a single developer's error.
• 🕵️‍♂️ Conspiracy theories suggest that the crash was either a foreign spy's infiltration, a rogue employee's message, or a pre-planned test for a future cyber attack.
• 🌐 The video also touches on the idea that the world economic forum has predicted a worldwide cyber attack, and CrowdStrike's incident might be connected.
• 🎓 The sponsor, Brilliant, is highlighted as a platform for learning problem-solving skills essential for programming and overcoming complex challenges in software development.

Q & A

What caused millions of Windows machines to go down recently?

A bad update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike caused millions of Windows machines to go down.

How many devices were affected by the CrowdStrike update issue?

8.5 million devices were affected by the CrowdStrike update issue.

Who was the CTO of McAfee during the 2010 incident, and what is his current position?

The CTO of McAfee during the 2010 incident was George Kurtz, who is now the CEO of CrowdStrike.

What specific mistake did the CrowdStrike update make that caused the system crashes?

The CrowdStrike update contained a logic error in Channel file 291, which caused the system crashes.

What is the role of the CrowdStrike Falcon sensor?

The CrowdStrike Falcon sensor is software that runs in the background on machines, looking for potential security anomalies and executing code via a driver.

What mode does the CrowdStrike software run in, and why is this significant?

The CrowdStrike software runs in ring zero, or kernel mode, which is the most privileged zone around the CPU usually reserved for process scheduling and direct hardware access.

What certification must third-party code have to run in kernel mode on Windows, and did CrowdStrike have this certification?

Third-party code must have WHQL certification from Microsoft to run in kernel mode on Windows, and the CrowdStrike driver was WHQL certified.

What was the hypothesis of a professional C++ programmer about the cause of the CrowdStrike issue?

The hypothesis was that an engineer coded up a null pointer trying to access a memory address that doesn't exist, a rookie coding mistake that could have been fixed with an if statement.

What deeper conspiracy theories have emerged regarding the CrowdStrike incident?

Some conspiracy theories suggest it was the work of a foreign spy, a rogue employee, or a pre-planned event by the World Economic Forum to test for a real cyber attack in 2026.

What lesson about quality control and organizational failures can be learned from the CrowdStrike incident?

The incident highlights the importance of multiple layers of protection, quality assurance, continuous integration, and staggered rollouts to prevent such failures from reaching production.