Kernel panic running as a VMware Guest ("BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 0000000000000004")

Issue

• A RHEL 7.3 Virtual Machine hosted on VMware, configured with 6 or more vCPUs, performs a kernel panic
• Backtrace may be an Oops or general protection fault or null pointer dereference similar to:

[   41.651323] BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 0000000000000004
[   41.654952] IP: [<ffffffff8158934d>] __flow_cache_shrink+0xad/0x170
[   41.657710] PGD 226fb0067 PUD 224207067 PMD 0 
[   41.660488] Oops: 0002 [#1] SMP
...
[   41.723411] CPU: 3 PID: 3444 Comm: processname Not tainted 3.10.0-514.el7.x86_64 #1
[   41.728173] Hardware name: VMware, Inc. VMware Virtual Platform/440BX Desktop Reference Platform, BIOS 6.00 04/14/2014
[   41.734588] task: ffff8800b8878fb0 ti: ffff88021f314000 task.ti: ffff88021f314000
[   41.740372] RIP: 0010:[<ffffffff8158934d>]  [<ffffffff8158934d>] __flow_cache_shrink+0xad/0x170
[   41.745795] RSP: 0018:ffff88021f317c10  EFLAGS: 00010246
[   41.749489] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 000000000000000a
[   41.753207] RDX: 0000000000000004 RSI: ffff88023fcdcfc0 RDI: ffffffff81a9de68
[   41.757286] RBP: ffff88021f317c68 R08: ffff880231f51240 R09: 0000000000000006
[   41.761327] R10: ffff88021f317c1e R11: 00000000769dff76 R12: 0000000000000001
[   41.765176] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: ffffffff81a9de68
[   41.768839] FS:  00007f342e8ff700(0000) GS:ffff88023fcc0000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
[   41.773028] CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
[   41.776074] CR2: 0000000000000004 CR3: 0000000222e34000 CR4: 00000000000407e0
[   41.779812] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
[   41.783931] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000ffff0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
[   41.787291] Stack:
[   41.790289]  ffff88023fcdcfc0 0000880224228b28 0000039e00000000 ffff88021f317c28
[   41.794601]  ffff88021f317c28 0000000054aa644a 0000000000000009 0000000000000001
[   41.798477]  0000000000000002 0000000000000002 ffffffff81a9cd80 ffff88021f317cd8
[   41.803183] Call Trace:
[   41.806017]  [<ffffffff815896ec>] flow_cache_lookup+0x2dc/0x420
[   41.810285]  [<ffffffff8160e860>] ? xfrm_expand_policies+0x130/0x130
[   41.814286]  [<ffffffff8160f22f>] xfrm_lookup+0x29f/0x3f0
[   41.817796]  [<ffffffff815adccd>] ? __ip_route_output_key_hash+0x1fd/0x930
[   41.822848]  [<ffffffff8160f72b>] xfrm_lookup_route+0x1b/0x70
[   41.827166]  [<ffffffff815ae764>] ip_route_output_flow+0x54/0x60
[   41.831703]  [<ffffffff815d441c>] tcp_v4_connect+0x1ac/0x4e0
[   41.835636]  [<ffffffff8118055b>] ? unlock_page+0x2b/0x30
[   41.839032]  [<ffffffff815eb3f5>] __inet_stream_connect+0xb5/0x330
[   41.842785]  [<ffffffff811de15c>] ? kmem_cache_alloc_trace+0x3c/0x200
[   41.846627]  [<ffffffff8111f9f6>] ? __audit_sockaddr+0x66/0x80
[   41.850816]  [<ffffffff815eb6a8>] inet_stream_connect+0x38/0x50
[   41.855154]  [<ffffffff81554fe7>] SYSC_connect+0xe7/0x120
[   41.859742]  [<ffffffff81555dee>] SyS_connect+0xe/0x10
[   41.863985]  [<ffffffff816964c9>] system_call_fastpath+0x16/0x1b
[   41.869171] Code: f0 4d 8b 30 41 39 dd 4c 89 f0 7e 14 41 8b 97 80 00 00 00 41 39 50 1c 4c 89 f0 0f 84 96 00 00 00 49 8b 50 08 41 83 c4 01 48 85 c0 <48> 89 02 74 04 48 89 50 08 48 b8 00 01 00 00 00 00 ad de 48 8d 
[   41.884953] RIP  [<ffffffff8158934d>] __flow_cache_shrink+0xad/0x170
[   41.889424]  RSP <ffff88021f317c10>
[   41.892794] CR2: 0000000000000004