CrowdStrike Falcon update crashes 8.5 million Windows machines

Updates on Jul 19, 2024

Summary

A faulty CrowdStrike Falcon sensor configuration update (Channel File 291) caused a logic error that blue-screened Windows hosts running sensor 7.11 and later that were online between 04:09 and 05:27 UTC on 2024-07-19. Microsoft estimated 8.5 million Windows devices were affected CrowdStrike stressed it was not a cyberattack; it is tracked here because a security agent with kernel-level access took down machines worldwide.

Advisories1

• Falcon content update remediation and guidance hubCrowdStrike