Does Crowdstrike publish packages through package repositories?

[mcarifio]

These scripts are valuable, thank you. apt-get install falcon-sensor would be more so. Although it takes some configuration, apt can be published to paying customers. Does Crowdstrike already do this? Please advise. Thanks.

[carlosmmatos-cs]

Hi @mcarifio — thanks for the kind words, and it's a fair question.

Short answer: CrowdStrike does not publish a public apt/yum/dnf/zypper repository for the Falcon sensor today, and that's by design rather than an oversight.

The sensor is distributed as signed .deb/.rpm packages, but the download itself is an entitled, authenticated operation tied to your CID. These scripts (and the Falcon console's Sensor Downloads page) do the same thing under the hood:

1. Authenticate to the Falcon API with your OAuth2 API client ID/secret.
2. Query the sensor-download API for the right build for your OS/version/arch.
3. Download the specific signed package.
4. Install it with your local package manager (dpkg/apt, yum/dnf, zypper).

Because every download is gated behind your API credentials and customer ID, a plain unauthenticated public repo (which is what apt-get install falcon-sensor would need) isn't something CrowdStrike offers. Package updates are instead managed cloud-side through Sensor Update Policies, so you control which sensor version each host group runs from the console.

That said, if you want apt/yum ergonomics, the common pattern is to mirror the packages into your own internal repo:

• Pull the packages once and host them in your own apt/yum repo, Artifactory, or Red Hat Satellite. This script supports a download-only mode for exactly that — FALCON_DOWNLOAD_ONLY=true (with an optional FALCON_DOWNLOAD_PATH) fetches the .deb/.rpm without installing, so you can drop it into your pipeline.
• Wrap the install in config management (Ansible/Chef/Puppet/SaltStack), which is how a lot of folks fold Falcon into their existing fleet workflows.

If a natively published repo is something you'd like to see, the best path is to raise it with CrowdStrike Support or your TAM/account team, since that's a product-roadmap decision rather than something these community scripts can add.

Hope that helps!