Recent troubles with the Debian distributions turn out to be the result of a 
kernel exploit, according to yesterday's article on Slashdot: 

http://developers.slashdot.org/developers/03/12/01/2133249.shtml?tid=106&tid=185&tid=90

Meanwhile RedHat has come out with the patch that must have been the result of 
this: 

https://rhn.redhat.com/network/errata/errata_details.pxt?eid=1888