Killing a process with a kernel module

[Patrick Barnes <patrick.barnes@gmail.com>]

Hi there,

RedHat recently released RHEL4 U2, and this update has some
unfortunate consequences, mainly
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=170087

As stated in the bugzilla report above, useradd gets stuck in a R
state and ignores all signals.

I have a critical system which I can't take down for another week or
so, but the extra load generated by the rogue useradd process is
slowing things down a little too much.

I was wondering if it was possible to safely terminate the process
using a more direct method (perhaps by manipulating kernel data
structures.)

What I'd like to know is if it is actually possible before attempting
to write the code to do it.

I know this is a long shot, but it's probably worth trying. :)

Thanks for your time. I look forward to any replies.

Regards,
Patrick