Ask HN: What is in C-00000291*.sys?

Context: CrowdStrike (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41002195)

The most successful malware of 2024, even though it only does denial of service.

Specifically, if the file is corrupted, in what way is it corrupt? I’m fascinated by how this issue occurred.

It's a crowdstrike update file with a bug in it, from what I gather. This makes your Windows machine go blue screen and stop working as it starts up. If you manage to remove it by various methods, it doesn't run and you're fine.

More informed people will give you more details, but this kind of AV software often has privileged access to the OS, so it can scan your files. The same privileged access also means it can really mess things up if it's not well tested.

By contrast your ordinary python or VBA script should not be able to blue screen your machine, especially not during startup.