systemd crashes due to a segmentation fault on boot, resulting in the server boot failure.

Issue

• systemd crashes due to a segmentation fault on boot, resulting in the server boot failure.

[    2.934233] systemd[1]: segfault at 0 ip 000055c2963af00b sp 00007ffce98bd170 error 4 in systemd[55c296336000+145000]
[    2.937462] Code: 18 64 48 8b 0c 25 28 00 00 00 48 89 4c 24 08 31 c9 48 8b 5c 24 58 4c 8b 74 24 60 48 8b 44 24 68 48 85 db 74 05 80 3b 00 75 35 <48> 8b 00 48 8b 80 f8 03 00 00 49 89 06 31 c0 48 8b 54 24 08 64 48
[    2.944073] Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init! exitcode=0x0000008b
[    2.944073]
[    2.946745] CPU: 15 PID: 1 Comm: systemd Not tainted 4.18.0-477.10.1.el8_8.x86_64 #1
[    2.948995] Hardware name: VMware, Inc. VMware Virtual Platform/440BX Desktop Reference Platform, BIOS 6.00 11/12/2020
[    2.952081] Call Trace:
[    2.952822]  dump_stack+0x41/0x60
[    2.953819]  panic+0xe7/0x2ac
[    2.954714]  do_exit.cold.28+0x5b/0xa2
[    2.955832]  do_group_exit+0x3a/0xa0
[    2.956907]  get_signal+0x158/0x870
[    2.957954]  ? page_fault+0x8/0x30
[    2.958966]  do_signal+0x36/0x690
[    2.959953]  ? __switch_to_asm+0x43/0x80
[    2.961113]  ? __switch_to+0x10c/0x450
[    2.962230]  ? finish_task_switch+0x86/0x2e0
[    2.963498]  ? page_fault+0x8/0x30
[    2.964515]  ? page_fault+0x8/0x30
[    2.965527]  exit_to_usermode_loop+0x89/0x100
[    2.966822]  prepare_exit_to_usermode+0x9f/0xb0
[    2.968163]  retint_user+0x8/0x8
[    2.969126] RIP: 0033:0x55c2963af00b
[    2.970191] Code: 18 64 48 8b 0c 25 28 00 00 00 48 89 4c 24 08 31 c9 48 8b 5c 24 58 4c 8b 74 24 60 48 8b 44 24 68 48 85 db 74 05 80 3b 00 75 35 <48> 8b 00 48 8b 80 f8 03 00 00 49 89 06 31 c0 48 8b 54 24 08 64 48
[    2.975592] RSP: 002b:00007ffce98bd170 EFLAGS: 00010246
[    2.977135] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 000055c297997960 RCX: 0000000000000000
[    2.979203] RDX: 0000000000000031 RSI: 000055c2964238d7 RDI: 0000000000000000
[    2.981278] RBP: 00007ffce98bd280 R08: 000000000000000e R09: 000055c297997950
[    2.983354] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 000055c297997950 R12: 00007fd54067d070
[    2.985442] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 000055c2966b9190 R15: 000055c2979979e0
[    2.988348] Kernel Offset: 0x14400000 from 0xffffffff81000000 (relocation range: 0xffffffff80000000-0xffffffffbfffffff)
[    2.994619] Rebooting in 1 seconds..

• The issue occurs when DefaultTasksMax= is left uncommented without explicitly specifying a value in /etc/systemd/system.conf.

 ...
DefaultTasksMax=
 ...