Iptables before 1.2.11, under certain conditions, does not properly load the required modules at system startup, which causes the firewall rules to fail to load and protect the system from remote attackers.
https://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-81-1/
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/17928
https://bugzilla.fedora.us/show_bug.cgi?id=2252
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/11570
http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDKSA-2004:125
http://www.debian.org/security/2004/dsa-580
http://www.ciac.org/ciac/bulletins/p-026.shtml
http://rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/suse/updates/9.2/i386/rpm/i586/iptables-1.2.11-4.2.i586.html