Linux "NULL pointer dereferece" in the News...

[Daniel B. Thurman]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/17/linux_kernel_exploit/

Have a read from this news-site link above. It makes me wonder
if there is a real problem with NULL memory exploits, and get this:

[...]
The "NULL pointer dereference" bug has been confirmed in
versions 2.6.30 and 2.6.30.1 of the Linux kernel, which Spengler
said has been incorporated into only one vendor build: version 5
of Red Hat Enterprise Linux that's used in test environments. The
exploit works only when a security extension knows as SELinux,
or Security-Enhanced Linux, is enabled. Conversely, it also works
when audio software known as PulseAudio is installed.
[...]

Is this "old news", rehashed (news) hype, or what?