A security error made Windows PCs around the world cause a global tech outage, but there is a temporary fix
CrowdStrike confirmed their update caused the outage.
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Picture this: you’re having your morning coffee, prepared to begin the day with a burst of work, and suddenly, your computer screen turns blue. It’s not simply any blue, though; it is what everyone fears – the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).
Now multiply that annoyance by thousands, even millions, as an unsuccessful security update from CrowdStrike causes Windows PCs around the globe to go haywire with crashes and boot loops in a worldwide outage. This recent nightmare scenario has disrupted companies of all sizes, from large banks and airlines to small TV channels.
The cause was a cyber attack. A faulty update led to Windows PCs crashing and displaying a blue screen and the mysterious error code csagent.sys (PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONEPAGED_AREA), in a global outage.
The cybersecurity giant Crowdstrike swiftly acknowledged the error and reversed the update. But it was too late—machines that had already experienced the update were now broken down and couldn’t function well anymore.
One hopeful Reddit thread proposed a solution: start the system in Safe Mode and remove a certain file from the CrowdStrike directory. It sounds simple, but it becomes difficult to do this on many machines – maybe hundreds or even more.
CrowdStrike Engineering has identified a content deployment related to this issue and reverted those changes.
Workaround Steps:
Reddit user
- Boot Windows into Safe Mode or the Windows Recovery Environment
- Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike directory
- Locate the file matching “C-00000291*.sys”, and delete it.
- Boot the host normally.
The mess was not confined to one place; it spread worldwide. Businesses from Malaysia to the UK reported big problems. Sky News had to apologize for stopped broadcasts, and Ryanair had to deal with flight delays. Even the US Federal Aviation Administration confirmed this problem, stating that flights from big airlines were halted because of it.
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