Using the -a option on syslogd to specify a log socket in a directory that
does not exist will cause syslogd to drive CPU usage to 100% and refuse to
listen to log requests on legit sockets.  This means that if you aren't
logged in as root, you will have to hit the reset button, because su,
sshd, etc. all want to write to syslog before they let you become root.

example:

/sbin/syslogd -m 0 -a /tmp/dir_that_doesnt_exist/log

causes CPU usage to go to 100% and local syslog requests to lock up.