Quick Takeaways
- Cloudflare experienced a six-hour global outage on February 20, 2026, caused by an internal configuration bug that withdrew 25% of its BYOIP BGP prefixes, disrupting numerous services.
- The root cause was an API error during automated cleanup, which mistakenly queued all returned prefixes for deletion due to an uninitialized flag, deleting approximately 1,100 prefixes.
- The outage led to widespread disruptions across core products like CDN, security, egress, and Magic Transit, causing widespread connection failures and HTTP 403 errors.
- Cloudflare is implementing rapid architecture improvements—such as schema standardization and circuit breakers—to prevent similar failures and enhance resilience against future incidents.
Underlying Problem
On February 20, 2026, Cloudflare experienced a significant six-hour global outage. The incident began at 17:48 UTC, caused by an internal bug during an automated API cleanup process. This bug mistakenly deleted about 1,100 BYOIP prefixes and their associated services, which disrupted internet routing for many customers. As a result, numerous websites and applications became unreachable, displaying HTTP 403 errors on the 1.1.1.1 DNS resolver. The outage particularly affected Cloudflare’s core services, including CDN, security, and applications relying on BYOIP configurations.
The failure happened because the automated system misinterpreted an empty flag as a command to delete all pending prefixes, highlighting flaws in the company’s deployment procedures. Although some customers could restore their services via the dashboard, about 300 prefixes required manual intervention. Cloudflare’s engineers responded by disabling the faulty process and deploying global configuration updates. Moving forward, the company plans to implement structural changes to prevent similar incidents, such as standardizing API schemas and introducing circuit breakers. The incident was reported by Cloudflare itself, which publicly apologized for the disruption, acknowledging its impact on the reliability of its network and its users worldwide.
Risk Summary
The recent Cloudflare outage demonstrates how crucial network services are to modern businesses. When Cloudflare experiences a massive six-hour outage, websites and online platforms become unreachable worldwide. As a result, customers cannot access products, services, or support, leading to immediate revenue loss. Additionally, this disruption damages trust and credibility, which may have long-term impacts. Without reliable internet infrastructure, businesses face significant operational halts, delays, and reputation damage. Therefore, such an outage highlights the importance of having contingency plans and multiple layers of redundancy to minimize risk and ensure continued service. Ultimately, any enterprise relying on internet infrastructure remains vulnerable to these types of outages, risking both short-term setbacks and lasting damage.
Possible Remediation Steps
Ensuring rapid and effective remediation during a significant service outage like Cloudflare’s six-hour global downtime is essential to minimize operational disruptions, protect customer trust, and maintain overall business resilience. Prompt action not only restores critical services swiftly but also helps prevent prolonged security vulnerabilities and reputational damage, aligning with best practices outlined in the NIST Cybersecurity Framework.
Immediate Containment
- Isolate affected systems and segments to prevent further impact.
- Disable or restrict access to compromised or overloaded components.
Incident Assessment
- Conduct rapid diagnostics to understand root causes.
- Determine affected services and scope of outage.
Communication Protocols
- Notify internal stakeholders and customers with transparent updates.
- Coordinate with Cloudflare support and relevant service providers.
Remediation Actions
- Deploy backup configurations or failover systems if available.
- Implement patches or updates if identified as causes.
Long-term Recovery
- Validate system integrity before reintegration.
- Conduct post-incident reviews to refine response plans.
Preventive Measures
- Enhance redundancy and failover strategies.
- Regularly update and test incident response procedures.
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Disclaimer: The information provided may not always be accurate or up to date. Please do your own research, as the cybersecurity landscape evolves rapidly. Intended for secondary references purposes only.
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