This New Windows 10 Bug Could Brick Your PC - Gizmodo

Most people aren’t going to experiment with navigating to root Windows 10 folders, but just in case anyone might be digging around in the software guts of their PC, it’s best to stay away from inputting this file path into your browser: “\\.\globalroot\device\condrv\kernelconnect”.

According to Tom’s Guide, the bug was recently discovered by Windows security researcher Jonas Lykkegaard, who’s been tweeting about the issue on-and-off since October 2020.

Lykkegaard explained that when the above path is opened in Windows 10, regardless of if the user has administrative privileges or not, the system can’t properly check for errors when it tries to connect to the path, resulting in a BSOD crash.

Aside from developers, there isn’t much of a reason why an average Windows 10 user would want to dig around in the root folders, especially at the kernel level; the Windows kernel is a crucial program that allows the operating system to function, controlling everyday processes like running drivers, and starting and ending programs.

Lykkegaard explained that a hacker could easily trick someone into downloading or clicking on a Windows URL file (.url) that would automatically take them to the problematic path and subsequently crash their PC.