(maint) Fix Solaris 10 spec failures

Without this patch applied we're seeing failures in the Solaris 10 spec
tests.  The root cause of this problem is a stub method that affects too
much of the system as a whole rather than the unit being tested.

This patch addresses the problem by narrowing the scope of the method
stub to limit the overall effect on the system.
Merge branch 'maint/1.7.x/fix_solaris_spec_issue' into 1.7.x

* maint/1.7.x/fix_solaris_spec_issue:
  (maint) Fix Solaris 10 spec failures