Last Friday, the world experienced the biggest global outage of key Windows PC infrastructure in history — this issue, caused by a botched CrowdStrike update to its kernel-level Falcon Sensor software, made modern Windows systems so fundamentally non-functional that flights around the world were delayed. Southwest Airlines managed to avoid the issue, because the company was using Windows 3.1 instead of any remotely modern version of the OS.
But as it turns out, the problem isn't just isolated to modern Windows operating systems. Linux users have been reporting kernel panics and crashes related to the same software since as early as April of this year, per a report from The Register.
So, how is this issue cross-platform? Chances are the specific issue that caused chaos over the last few days is not— after all, we would've seen it cripple Windows machines much sooner if that were the case. However, what this does demonstrate is that CrowdStrike has apparently been lax with its Falcon Sensor Security software for quite a while now.
