RHEL 8.1: kernel panic at smb2_get_credits+0x19

Issue

• Kernel panic with the logs:

[ 8107.926600] BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 000000000000000e
[ 8107.926604] PGD 0 P4D 0 
[ 8107.926607] Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI
[ 8107.926610] CPU: 1 PID: 6203 Comm: cifsd Kdump: loaded Not tainted 4.18.0-147.8.1.el8_1.x86_64 #1
[ 8107.926612] Hardware name: VMware, Inc. VMware Virtual Platform/440BX Desktop Reference Platform, BIOS 6.00 11/12/2020
[ 8107.926661] RIP: 0010:smb2_get_credits+0x19/0x20 [cifs]
[ 8107.926663] Code: 02 00 00 81 fe 00 01 00 00 48 0f 44 c7 c3 0f 1f 00 0f 1f 44 00 00 8b 57 6c 83 fa 04 74 08 31 c0 83 fa 10 74 01 c3 48 8b 47 60 <0f> b7 40 0e c3 66 90 0f 1f 44 00 00 c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00
[ 8107.926664] RSP: 0018:ffff9a4512317e08 EFLAGS: 00010246
[ 8107.926665] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffff88b3f51e4000 RCX: dead000000000200
[ 8107.926666] RDX: 0000000000000004 RSI: ffff88b209c31300 RDI: ffff88b209c31300
[ 8107.926667] RBP: ffff88b209c31300 R08: 0000000000000001 R09: 0000000000000000
[ 8107.926667] R10: ffff88b3fec626c8 R11: 01cfbc78685c2301 R12: 0000000000000000
[ 8107.926668] R13: ffff88b3f51e41b8 R14: ffff9a4512317eb0 R15: ffff9a4512317e88
[ 8107.926669] FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff88b418c40000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
[ 8107.926670] CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
[ 8107.926671] CR2: 000000000000000e CR3: 000000084960a001 CR4: 00000000007606e0
[ 8107.926696] PKRU: 55555554
[ 8107.926697] Call Trace:
[ 8107.926716]  cifs_compound_callback+0x2f/0x70 [cifs]
[ 8107.926735]  cifs_compound_last_callback+0xe/0x20 [cifs]
[ 8107.926751]  cifs_demultiplex_thread+0x6ac/0xb90 [cifs]
[ 8107.926769]  ? cifs_handle_standard+0x180/0x180 [cifs]
[ 8107.926774]  kthread+0x112/0x130
[ 8107.926776]  ? kthread_flush_work_fn+0x10/0x10
[ 8107.926782]  ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x40
[ 8107.926784] Modules linked in: arc4 md4 sha512_ssse3 sha512_generic cmac nls_utf8 cifs ccm dns_resolver unix_diag vmw_vsock_vmci_transport vsock sunrpc vmw_balloon nfit libnvdimm crct10dif_pclmul crc32_pclmul ghash_clmulni_intel intel_rapl_perf joydev pcspkr sg vmw_vmci i2c_piix4 xfs libcrc32c sr_mod cdrom sd_mod ata_generic vmwgfx ahci libahci drm_kms_helper ata_piix libata syscopyarea sysfillrect sysimgblt fb_sys_fops ttm crc32c_intel vmxnet3 serio_raw drm vmw_pvscsi dm_mirror dm_region_hash dm_log dm_mod
[ 8107.926813] CR2: 000000000000000e