RHEL7: RHEL guest running on VMware hypervisor crashed with a message "BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at (null)".

Issue

• RHEL guest running on VMware hypervisor crashed with a message "BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at (null)".

[11121263.525734] BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at           (null)
[11121263.525819] IP: [<          (null)>]           (null)
[11121263.525862] PGD 800000023696a067 PUD 2337ec067 PMD 0 
[11121263.525907] Oops: 0010 [#1] SMP 
[11121263.525937] Modules linked in: xt_CHECKSUM ipt_MASQUERADE nf_nat_masquerade_ipv4 tun nf_conntrack_ftp ip6t_rpfilter ipt_REJECT nf_reject_ipv4 ip6t_REJECT nf_reject_ipv6 xt_conntrack ip_set nfnetlink ebtable_nat ebtable_broute bridge stp llc ip6table_nat nf_conntrack_ipv6 nf_defrag_ipv6 nf_nat_ipv6 ip6table_mangle ip6table_security ip6table_raw iptable_nat nf_conntrack_ipv4 nf_defrag_ipv4 nf_nat_ipv4 nf_nat nf_conntrack iptable_mangle iptable_security iptable_raw ebtable_filter ebtables ip6table_filter ip6_tables iptable_filter vmw_vsock_vmci_transport vsock sb_edac edac_core coretemp iosf_mbi crc32_pclmul ghash_clmulni_intel ppdev aesni_intel lrw gf128mul glue_helper ablk_helper cryptd vmw_balloon sg joydev pcspkr i2c_piix4 vmw_vmci shpchp parport_pc parport nfsd auth_rpcgss nfs_acl lockd grace sunrpc
[11121263.527505]  binfmt_misc ip_tables xfs libcrc32c sr_mod cdrom ata_generic pata_acpi sd_mod crc_t10dif crct10dif_generic vmwgfx drm_kms_helper syscopyarea sysfillrect sysimgblt fb_sys_fops ttm drm ata_piix crct10dif_pclmul mptsas crct10dif_common libata crc32c_intel scsi_transport_sas serio_raw mptscsih mptbase vmxnet3 i2c_core floppy dm_mirror dm_region_hash dm_log dm_mod
[11121263.527782] CPU: 1 PID: 0 Comm: swapper/1 Not tainted 3.10.0-693.11.6.el7.x86_64 #1
[11121263.527835] Hardware name: VMware, Inc. VMware Virtual Platform/440BX Desktop Reference Platform, BIOS 6.00 09/21/2015
[11121263.527906] task: ffff88017cf09fa0 ti: ffff88017cf34000 task.ti: ffff88017cf34000
[11121263.527979] RIP: 0010:[<0000000000000000>]  [<          (null)>]           (null)
[11121263.528058] RSP: 0018:ffff88023fc83fe0  EFLAGS: 00010046
[11121263.528119] RAX: 0000000076d87dbc RBX: ffff88017cf37e18 RCX: 0000000000000001
[11121263.528197] RDX: ffff88023fc98a00 RSI: 0000000000000001 RDI: 0000000000000046
[11121263.528245] RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: ffffffff816e2540 R09: ffff88017cf09fa0
[11121263.528292] R10: 00000000000f4240 R11: 7fffffffffffffff R12: 0000000000000000
[11121263.528354] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: ffff88017cf34000 R15: ffff88017cf34000
[11121263.528403] FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff88023fc80000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
[11121263.528463] CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
[11121263.528502] CR2: 0000000000000000 CR3: 0000000221256000 CR4: 00000000001607e0
[11121263.528602] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
[11121263.528701] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000ffff0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
[11121263.528750] Call Trace:
[11121263.528771] Code:  Bad RIP value.
[11121263.528806] RIP  [<          (null)>]           (null)
[11121263.528847]  RSP <ffff88023fc83fe0>
[11121263.528874] CR2: 0000000000000000

• Stack contents of the panic task can't be read.

crash> set -p
    PID: 0
COMMAND: "swapper/1"
   TASK: ffff88017cf09fa0  (1 of 4)  [THREAD_INFO: ffff88017cf34000]
    CPU: 1
  STATE: TASK_RUNNING (PANIC)

crash> bt
PID: 0      TASK: ffff88017cf09fa0  CPU: 1   COMMAND: "swapper/1"
 #0 [ffff88023fc83c88] machine_kexec at ffffffff8105c58b
 #1 [ffff88023fc83ce8] __crash_kexec at ffffffff81106742
 #2 [ffff88023fc83db8] crash_kexec at ffffffff81106830
 #3 [ffff88023fc83dd0] oops_end at ffffffff816b0aa8
 #4 [ffff88023fc83df8] no_context at ffffffff8169f3aa
 #5 [ffff88023fc83e48] __bad_area_nosemaphore at ffffffff8169f440
 #6 [ffff88023fc83e90] bad_area_nosemaphore at ffffffff8169f5aa
 #7 [ffff88023fc83ea0] __do_page_fault at ffffffff816b396e
 #8 [ffff88023fc83f00] do_page_fault at ffffffff816b3b15
 #9 [ffff88023fc83f30] page_fault at ffffffff816af8f8
    [exception RIP: unknown or invalid address]
    RIP: 0000000000000000  RSP: ffff88023fc83fe0  RFLAGS: 00010046
    RAX: 0000000076d87dbc  RBX: ffff88017cf37e18  RCX: 0000000000000001
    RDX: ffff88023fc98a00  RSI: 0000000000000001  RDI: 0000000000000046
    RBP: 0000000000000000   R8: ffffffff816e2540   R9: ffff88017cf09fa0
    R10: 00000000000f4240  R11: 7fffffffffffffff  R12: 0000000000000000
    R13: 0000000000000000  R14: ffff88017cf34000  R15: ffff88017cf34000
    ORIG_RAX: ffffffffffffffff  CS: 0010  SS: 0018
--- <IRQ stack> ---
bt: page excluded: kernel virtual address: ffffffffffffffd8  type: "pt_regs"