Error Codes Wiki

KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE — BSOD Security and Buffer Overflow Detection

Criticalbsod

Overview

Fix Windows BSOD KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE caused by driver corruption, buffer overflows, or system file integrity violations.

Key Details

  • KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE (0x00000139) indicates Windows detected a security violation in kernel code
  • Often triggered by buffer overflow detection, stack corruption, or integer overflow in a driver
  • More common after driver updates, Windows Updates, or hardware changes
  • May also occur during sleep/wake transitions due to driver power management bugs
  • This is a security-hardening feature — Windows intentionally crashes to prevent exploitation

Common Causes

  • Corrupted or incompatible driver triggering a buffer overflow check failure
  • System file corruption violating kernel code integrity checks
  • Hardware issues (RAM, SSD) causing data corruption that triggers security checks
  • Sleep/hibernate resume failure in a driver's power management code

Steps

  1. 1Check the minidump file (C:\Windows\Minidump\) using WinDbg or WhoCrashed to identify the faulting driver
  2. 2Update all drivers, especially GPU, network, and storage drivers from manufacturer websites
  3. 3Run 'sfc /scannow' and 'DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth' to repair corrupted system files
  4. 4If crashes occur during sleep: update BIOS and chipset drivers, or disable sleep temporarily to confirm
  5. 5Test RAM with Windows Memory Diagnostic or memtest86+ to rule out hardware memory corruption

Tags

bsodkernel-securitybuffer-overflowdrivercrash

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Frequently Asked Questions

Install WinDbg from the Microsoft Store. Open the .dmp file from C:\Windows\Minidump\. Run '!analyze -v' to get the faulting module name, stack trace, and probable cause.