RHEL 4 system experienced a kernel panic in autofs at "_spin_unlock_irqrestore+27"

Issue

• A RHEL 4 system has experienced a kernel panic with the following signature:

kernel: ----------- [cut here ] --------- [please bite here ] ---------
kernel: Kernel BUG at spinlock:76
kernel: invalid operand: 0000 [1] SMP
kernel: CPU 7
kernel: Modules linked in: mptctl mptbase sg hp_ilo(U) ipmi_devintf ipmi_si ipmi_msghandler nfs lockd nfs_acl md5 ipv6 parport_pc lp parport autofs4 sunrpc netconsole ds yenta_socket pcmcia_core dm_multipath joydev button battery ac ehci_hcd uhci_hcd bnx2 dm_snapshot dm_zero dm_mirror ext3 jbd dm_mod cciss sd_mod scsi_mod
kernel: Pid: 27401, comm: automount Not tainted 2.6.9-78.0.8.ELlargesmp
kernel: RIP: 0010:[<ffffffff80318bbd>] <ffffffff80318bbd>{_spin_unlock_irqrestore+27}
kernel: RSP: 0018:00000108f8f69f10  EFLAGS: 00010002
kernel: Call Trace:<ffffffffa015370b>{:autofs4:autofs4_wait_release+187}
kernel:        <ffffffff8018c0e9>{sys_ioctl+853} <ffffffff8011026a>{system_call+126}