Incorrect default image causes memory overflow

On a clients site that I was working on an interesting situation happened. We had a content type that contained an imagefield called 'field_photo'.

This had been assigned an image but at some point was deleted from the files table (in the database) and on disk but not in the defaults value. Lots of problems insued. Basically, I believe that Imagefield got into a recursive loop attempting to retrieve the default value, but I can only speculate. I have dumped the reliavent section of code from this node that shows how the array is becoming a recursive loop.

Is there any checks for invalid default images... any way if you need more information please let me know.

[field_photo] => Array ( [field_name] => field_photo [type_name] => producer_profile [display_settings] => Array ( [weight] => 11 [parent] => group_details [2] => Array ( [format] => hidden [exclude] => 0 ) [3] => Array ( [format] => hidden [exclude] => 0 ) [label] => Array ( [format] => hidden ) [teaser] => Array ( [format] => photo_tiny_linked [exclude] => 0 ) [full] => Array ( [format] => photo_original_default [exclude] => 0 ) [Teaser] => Array ( [format] => image_plain [exclude] => 0 ) [Full] => Array ( [format] => image_plain [exclude] => 0 ) ) [widget_active] => 1 [type] => filefield [required] => 0 [multiple] => 1 [db_storage] => 0 [module] => filefield [active] => 1 [locked] => 0 [columns] => Array ( [fid] => Array ( [type] => int [not null] => [views] => 1 ) [list] => Array ( [type] => int [size] => tiny [not null] => [views] => 1 ) [data] => Array ( [type] => text [serialize] => 1 [views] => 1 ) ) [list_field] => 0 [list_default] => 1 [description_field] => 0 [widget] => Array ( [0] => [file_extensions] => png gif jpg jpeg [file_path] => [progress_indicator] => bar [max_filesize_per_file] => [max_filesize_per_node] => [max_resolution] => 0 [min_resolution] => 0 [alt] => [custom_alt] => 0 [title] => [custom_title] => 0 [title_type] => textfield [default_image] => Array ( [filename] => field_photo.jpg [filepath] => sites/harvestmig.site.koumbit.net/files/imagefield_default_images/field_photo_1.jpg [filemime] => image/jpeg [source] => default_image_upload [destination] => sites/harvestmig.site.koumbit.net/files/imagefield_default_images/field_photo_1.jpg [filesize] => 7347 [uid] => 5 [status] => 1 [timestamp] => 1287085751 [fid] => 2148 ) [use_default_image] => 1 [1] => [2] => [3] => [4] => [5] => [6] => [7] => [8] => [9] => [10] => [11] => [12] => [13] => [14] => [15] => [16] => [17] => [18] => [19] => [20] => [21] => [22] => [23] => [24] => [25] => [26] => [27] => [28] => [29] => [30] => [31] => [32] => [33] => [34] => [35] => [36] => [37] => [38] => [39] => [40] => [41] => [42] => [43] => [44] => [45] => [46] => [47] => [48] => [49] => [50] => [51] => [52] => [53] => [54] => [55] => [56] => [57] => [58] => [59] => [60] => [61] => [62] => [63] => [64] => [65] => [66] => [67] => [68] => [69] => [70] => [71] => [72] => [73] => [74] => [75] => [76] => [77] => [78] => [79] => [80] => [81] => [82] => [83] => [84] => [85] => [86] => [87] => [88] => [89] => [90] => [91] => [92] => [93] => [94] => [95] => [96] => [97] => [98] => [99] => [100] => [101] => [102] => [103] => [104] => [105] => [106] => [107] => [108] => [109] => [110] => [111] => [112] => [113] => ...