From kernel memory disclosure to privilege escalation: when and how?

[Kevin Johnson <kevjohnson71 () yahoo com>]

Hello!
Could somebody write what threats there are when kernel memory disclosure is found?
I mean not along with another bug (since kmem disclosure could lead to some interesting pointers addresses and values, 
etc), but only itself!?
I guess it could lead to /etc/shadow disclosure, if some suid programs accessing it would be running in the background 
(chsh, for example). Is it correct?
BTW, when chsh and other programs-accessing-shadow-file are running, where do they store the /etc/shadow content? On 
the kernel stack in it's thread_union, or somewhere else?

So, besides /etc/shadow disclosure, are there any significant places, where kernel memory disclosure could lead to very 
likely privilege escalation?

Thank you.

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