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Normally the interface is not in promiscuous mode; promiscuous mode is only used for certain purposes by particular software (eg, a packet sniffer), and I promise you would know about it. The vulnerability is not a defect in the promiscuous mode -- it's the possibility of someone intentionally using one computer on a LAN to snoop on other computers on the LAN without the administrator being aware of it. That is actually the purpose of promiscuous mode (to monitor network traffic).
So, I do not think this represents any kind of problem for you. If you use a computer on a LAN, there is really *nothing* you can do to prevent people from using any computer -- suse, BSD, windows, whatever -- set in promiscuous mode to spy on your traffic. If you know how, it is easy to do this (for example) on a public wireless network (as long as you are allowed to log on), which is why you should never transmit important passwords, etc, unless they are encrypted. Understand: they do not have to set your computer in promiscuous mode. They have to set their computer in promiscuous mode, which will allow that computer to monitor all the traffic on the LAN (including everyone elses). So normally, if you are the administrator of such a network, you do not want to permit anyone to do that. You can only really do that if you have physical control over all the machines on the network, ie, nobody gets to plug in their laptop, etc.
The reported concern with suse from some years ago that I just found through google describes this as an issue for administrators wherein some changes in the kernel design made it more difficult for them to prevent people on their network from doing this.
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how to avoid the promiscuous mode vulnerability in suse
