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submitted 3 months ago by lemmee_in@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world

IT administrators are struggling to deal with the ongoing fallout from the faulty CrowdStrike update. One spoke to The Register to share what it is like at the coalface.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the administrator, who is responsible for a fleet of devices, many of which are used within warehouses, told us: "It is very disturbing that a single AV update can take down more machines than a global denial of service attack. I know some businesses that have hundreds of machines down. For me, it was about 25 percent of our PCs and 10 percent of servers."

He isn't alone. An administrator on Reddit said 40 percent of servers were affected, along with 70 percent of client computers stuck in a bootloop, or approximately 1,000 endpoints.

Sadly, for our administrator, things are less than ideal.

Another Redditor posted: "They sent us a patch but it required we boot into safe mode.

"We can't boot into safe mode because our BitLocker keys are stored inside of a service that we can't login to because our AD is down.

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[-] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 200 points 3 months ago

Pity the administrators who dutifully kept a list of those keys on a secure server share, only to find that the server is also now showing a screen of baleful blue.

Lol, can you imagine? It empathetically hurts me even thinking of this situation. Enter that brave hero who kept the fileshare decryption key in a local keepass :D

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 128 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

That's why the 3-2-1 rule exists:

  • 3 copies of everything on
  • 2 different forms of media with
  • 1 copy off site

For something like keys, that means:

  1. secure server share
  2. server share backup at a different site
  3. physical copy (either USB, printed in a safe, etc)

Any IT pro should be aware of this "rule." Oh, and periodically test restoring from a backup to make sure the backup actually works.

[-] IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world 37 points 3 months ago

We have a cron job that once a quarter files a ticket with whoever is on-call that week to test all our documented emergency access procedures to ensure they’re all working, accessible, up-to-date etc.

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[-] kescusay@lemmy.world 64 points 3 months ago

Seems like an argument for a heterogeneous environment, perhaps a solid and secure Linux server to host important keys like that.

[-] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 54 points 3 months ago

Linux can shit the bed too. You need to maintain a physical copy.

[-] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 51 points 3 months ago

Their point is not that linux can't fail, it's that a mix of windows and linux is better than just one. That's what "heterogeneous environment" means.

You should think of your network environment like an ecosystem; monocultures are vulnerable to systemic failure. Diverse ecosystems are more resilient.

[-] gnutrino@programming.dev 28 points 3 months ago

Sure but the chances of your Windows and Linux machines shitting the bed at the same time is less than if everything is running Windows. It's exactly the same reason you keep a physical copy (which after all can break/burn down etc.) - more baskets to spread your eggs across.

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[-] noobface@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago

Hey Ralph can you get that post-it from the bottom of your keyboard?

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[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 192 points 3 months ago

We can't boot into safe mode because our BitLocker keys are stored inside of a service that we can't login to because our AD is down.

Someone never tested their DR plans, if they even have them. Generally locking your keys inside the car is not a good idea.

[-] Zron@lemmy.world 51 points 3 months ago

I remember a few career changes ago, I was a back room kid working for an MSP.

One day I get an email to build a computer for the company, cheap as hell. Basically just enough to boot Windows 7.

I was to build it, put it online long enough to get all of the drivers installed, and then set it up in the server room, as physically far away from any network ports as possible. IIRC I was even given an IO shield that physically covered the network port for after it updated.

It was our air-gapped encryption key backup.

I feel like that shitty company was somehow prepared for this better than some of these companies today. In fact, I wonder if that computer is still running somewhere and just saved someone’s ass.

[-] jet@hackertalks.com 42 points 3 months ago

The good news is! This is a shake out test and they're going to update those playbooks

[-] jlh@lemmy.jlh.name 40 points 3 months ago

Sysadmins are lucky it wasn't malware this time. Next time could be a lot worse than just a kernel driver with a crash bug.

3rd party companies really shouldn't have access to ship out kernel drivers to millions of computers like this.

[-] Quexotic@infosec.pub 15 points 3 months ago

I wish you were right. I really wish you were. I don't think you are. I'm not trying to be a contrarian but I don't think for a large number of organizations that this is the case.

For what it's worth I truly hope that I'm 100% incorrect and everybody learns from this bullshit but that may not be the case.

[-] Evotech@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago

The bad news is that the next incident will be something else they haven't thought about

[-] SapphironZA@sh.itjust.works 17 points 3 months ago

We also backup our bitlocker keys with our RMM solution for this very reason.

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 12 points 3 months ago

I hope that system doesn't have any dependencies on the systems it's protecting (auth, mfa).

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[-] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 117 points 3 months ago

Lmao this is incredible

Another Redditor posted: "They sent us a patch but it required we boot into safe mode.

"We can't boot into safe mode because our BitLocker keys are stored inside of a service that we can't login to because our AD is down.

"Most of our comms are down, most execs' laptops are in infinite bsod boot loops, engineers can't get access to credentials to servers."

N.B.: Reddit link is from the source

I hope a lot of c-suites get fired for this. But I’m pretty sure they won’t be.

[-] MagicShel@programming.dev 86 points 3 months ago

C-suites fired? That's the funniest thing I've heard yet today. They aren't getting fired - they are their own ass-coverage. How can they be to blame when all these other companies were hit as well?

I guess this is a good week for me to still be laid off.

[-] CodexArcanum@lemmy.world 78 points 3 months ago

Our administrator is understandably a little bitter about the whole experience as it has unfolded, saying, "We were forced to switch from the perfectly good ESET solution which we have used for years by our central IT team last year.

Sounds like a lot of architects and admins are going to get thrown under the bus for this one.

"Yes, we ordered you to cut costs in impossible ways, but we never told you specifically to centralize everything with a third party, that was just the only financially acceptable solution that we would approve. This is still your fault, so we're firing the entire IT department and replacing them with an AI managed by a company in Sri Lanka."

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[-] SkybreakerEngineer@lemmy.world 28 points 3 months ago

Fired? I hope they get class-actioned out of existence as a warning to anyone who skimps on QA

[-] MrNesser@lemmy.world 110 points 3 months ago

Lemmy appears to be weathering the storm quite well.....

..probably runs on linux

[-] cygnus@lemmy.ca 96 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

The overwhelming majority of webservers run Linux ~~(it's not even close, like high 90 percent range)~~ Edit: Upon double-checking it's more like mid-80s, but the point stands

[-] RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de 68 points 3 months ago

It runs on hundreds of servers. If any of them ran windows they might be out but unless you got an account on them you'd be fine with the rest. That's the whole point of federation.

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[-] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 3 months ago

I doubt many Lemmy servers are running enterprise level antivirus.

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[-] Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me 82 points 3 months ago

This is why every machine I manage has a second boot option to download a small recovery image off the Internet and phone home with a shell. And a copy of it on a cheap USB stick.

Worst case I can boot the Windows install in a VM with the real disk, do the maintenance remotely. I can reinstall the whole thing remotely. Just need the user to mash F12 during boot and select the recovery environment, possibly input WiFi credentials if not wired.

I feel like this should be standard if you have a lot of remote machines in the field.

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 39 points 3 months ago

This is why every machine I manage has a second boot option to download a small recovery image off the Internet and phone home with a shell. And a copy of it on a cheap USB stick.

You're fucking killing it. Stay awesome.

Also gist this up pls. Thanks.

[-] Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me 37 points 3 months ago

I wish it was more shareable, but it's also not as magic as it sounds.

Fundamentally it's just a Linux install with some heavy customizations so that it does one thing only: boot Linux, and just enough prompts to get it online so that the VPN works, and download the root image into RAM that it boots into so I can SSH into the box, and then a bunch of Linux tools for me to use so I can reimage from there, or run a QEMU with the physical disk passed through so I can VNC into an install even if it BSOD.

It's a Linux UKI (combined kernel+initramfs into a simple EFI file the firmware can boot directly without a bootloader), but you can just as easily get away with a hidden Debian install or whatever. Can even be a second Windows install if that's your thing. The reason I went this particular route is I don't have to update it since it downloads it on the fly, much like the Mac recovery. And it runs entirely in RAM afrerwards so I can safely do whatever is needed with the disk.

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[-] person420@lemmynsfw.com 20 points 3 months ago

Just need the user to mash F12 during boot and select the recovery environment, possibly input WiFi credentials if not wired

In theory that sounds great, now just do it 1000+ times while your phone is ringing off the hook and you're working with some of the most tech illiterate people in your org.

[-] WhatYouNeed@lemmy.world 16 points 3 months ago

I'm pressing F and 1 and 2, but nothings happening!

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[-] Boozilla@lemmy.world 79 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

If you have EC2 instances running Windows on AWS, here is a trick that works in many (not all) cases. It has recovered a few instances for us:

  • Shut down the affected instance.
  • Detach the boot volume.
  • Move the boot volume (attach) to a working instance in the same region (us-east-1a or whatever).
  • Remove the file(s) recommended by Crowdstrike:
  • Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\CrowdStrike directory
  • Locate the file(s) matching “C-00000291*.sys”, and delete them (unless they have already been fixed by Crowdstrike).
  • Detach and move the volume back over to original instance (attach)
  • Boot original instance

Alternatively, you can restore from a snapshot prior to when the bad update went out from Crowdstrike. But that is not always ideal.

[-] Defaced@lemmy.world 23 points 3 months ago

A word of caution, I've done this over a dozen times today and I did have one server where the bootloader was wiped after I attached it to another EC2. Always make a snapshot before doing the work just in case.

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[-] Cossty@lemmy.world 69 points 3 months ago

I didnt know so many servers still run windows.

[-] CaptPretentious@lemmy.world 39 points 3 months ago

I'm the corporate world, very much Windows gets used. I know Lemmy likes a circle jerk around Linux. But in the corporate world you find various OS's for both desktop and servers. I had to support several different OS's and developed only for two. They all suck in different ways there are no clear winners.

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[-] Hotzilla@sopuli.xyz 32 points 3 months ago

Issue is not just on servers, but endpoints also. Servers are something that you can relatively easily fix, because they are either virtualized or physically in same location.

But endpoints you might have thousand physical locations, and IT need to visit all of them (POS, info/commercial displays, IoT sensors etc.).

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[-] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 14 points 3 months ago

My former employer had a bunch of windows servers providing remote desktops for us to access some proprietary (and often legacy) mission critical software.

Part of the security policy was that any machines in the possession of end users were assumed to be untrustworthy, so they kept the applications locked down on the servers.

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[-] terminhell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 3 months ago

On prem AD. At least for my MSP's clients. Have been pushing hard last few years to migrate to azure.

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[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world 63 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

At least no mission critical services were hit, because nobody would run mission critical services in Windows, right?
..
RIGHT??

[-] slacktoid@lemmy.ml 30 points 3 months ago

Sounds like the best time to unionize

[-] Quexotic@infosec.pub 16 points 3 months ago

I'm in. This world desperately needs an information workers union. Someone to cover those poor fuckers in the help desk and desktop support as well as the engineers and architects that keep all of this shit running.

Those of us that aren't underpaid are treated poorly. Today is what it looks like if everybody strikes at once.

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[-] Fedizen@lemmy.world 27 points 3 months ago
[-] TheObviousSolution@lemm.ee 18 points 3 months ago

It might be CrowdStrike's fault, but maybe this will motivate companies to adopt better workflows and adopt actual preproduction deployment to test these sort of updates before they go live in the rest of the systems.

[-] EnderMB@lemmy.world 19 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I know people at big tech companies that work on client engineering, where this downtime has huge implications. Naturally, they've called a sev1, but instead of dedicating resources to fixing these issues the teams are basically bullied into working insane hours to manually patch while clients scream at them. One dude worked 36 hours straight because his manager outright told him "you can sleep when this is fixed", as if he's responsible for CloudStrike...

Companies won't learn. It's always a calculated risk, and much of the fallout of that risk lies with the workers.

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[-] Disaster@sh.itjust.works 13 points 3 months ago

80% of our machines were hit. We were working through 9pm on Friday night running around putting in bitlocker keys and running the fix. Our organization made it worse by hiding the bitlocker keys from local administrators.

Also gotta say... way the boot sequence works, combined with the nonsense with raid/nvme drivers on some machines really made it painful.

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this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2024
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