Kernel level code blindly loading arbitrary files?
Panicking when the file doesn’t parse because it’s not a memory safe language?
Not validating the files before loading them?
Not validating the files before SHIPPING them? No CI? No safety net?
No staged rollout in case of explosion?
There are far FAR bigger mistakes here than “sys admin didn’t have to press button”.
I agree with the rest, especially the use of a memory unsafe language to do parsing in the kernel by a billion dollar security company blows my mind.
How can you even run a security company without any security professionals reading your code even incidentally? An impressive level of incompetence.
How the heck they didn't find out the new version prevent the computer from booting at all?
I lean towards breaking things being the bigger risk.
But if even a handful of the other errors were corrected this would have been prevented and they wouldn’t have had to make that choice.
Whether a program panics or recovers when attempting to parse bad data is entirely orthogonal to memory safety. Do you have any in-depth technical information about the bug itself that you're basing this on?
This is a faulty and dangerous product from conception to execution.
Unfortunately "security" folk these days are box ticking fuckwits and this product brief ticked all the boxes. They do not understand any more traditional methodologies other than "install these magic beans and action the reports".
Invest in better software and network architecture and DR strategy instead.