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Depending on its use, the first thing I generally do on a new server is disable the OOM killer.

At runtime: sysctl vm.overcommit_memory=2

To make it persist, just add vm.overcommit_memory=2 to /etc/sysctl.conf

Note however, that turning off overcommit might yield unexpected results upon fork()/exec(): http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-disadvantages-of-disabling...

For instance, if you run a Redis server and turn off memory overcommit, you might not be able to background save.

Warning - that site requires a login.

That allows me to see the first answer but not the rest.

What are the true consequences of disabling it though? What happens in the OOM situation? Or does it just not allow allocation?

Allocation fails with ENOMEM.

...which is an error that is rarely handled in the code nowadays, therefore highly unexpected behavior may be expected ;)

File and/or tear your vendor a new one.

Edit: file a bug ...