Configuration Error Triggers Widespread Service Disruptions
Cloudflare apologised on Tuesday after a configuration file designed to process threat traffic malfunctioned and triggered a crash in its software, causing a “significant outage” that disrupted access to X, ChatGPT, and a wide range of other online services. The company said the issue has been resolved but warned that some services may continue to show errors as systems fully recover.
Millions Experience Access Problems Across Multiple Platforms
Users began reporting issues shortly after 11:30 GMT, according to outage tracker Downdetector. Services such as Grindr, Zoom, Canva, and others experienced delays or error messages. X displayed a notice on its homepage for some users saying an internal server problem originated with Cloudflare, while ChatGPT presented a message reading: “please unblock challenges cloudflare.com to proceed.”
Cloudflare Says Outage Was Not Caused by an Attack
Cloudflare said the outage resulted from a technical failure rather than malicious activity. “To be clear, there is no evidence that this was the result of an attack or caused by malicious activity,” the company said. It added that “any outage is unacceptable” given the central role Cloudflare plays in internet infrastructure.
Impact Shows Cloudflare’s Central Role in Global Web Traffic
Cloudflare provides security and traffic management services to an estimated 20% of websites worldwide. The extent of Tuesday’s disruption was underscored when Downdetector itself, a service people use to check real-time outages, also displayed error messages. Alp Toker, director of NetBlocks, said the incident pointed to a “catastrophic disruption” across Cloudflare’s infrastructure, noting that the company has become “one of the internet’s largest single points of failure” as more websites rely on it to defend against denial-of-service attacks.
Industry Experts Warn About Fragile Infrastructure
Cloudflare’s share price was trading about 3% lower shortly after 15:00 GMT. The outage follows similar disruptions in recent months, including an Amazon Web Services incident that affected more than 1,000 sites and apps, and a subsequent issue impacting Microsoft Azure. Jake Moore, global cybersecurity advisor at ESET, said the recent outages highlight the reliance many companies have on large cloud and security providers due to the limited number of alternatives.
Featured image credits: Heute.at
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