Indeed you are correct,

>>> '\ta\n\tb'.expandtabs(2147483647)

Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
string_expandtabs (self=0xb7ba7c60, args=0xb7ba7dec) at
Objects/stringobject.c:3358
3358                        *q++ = ' ';
(gdb) bt
#0  string_expandtabs (self=0xb7ba7c60, args=0xb7ba7dec) at
Objects/stringobject.c:3358
#1  0xb7e1b6dd in PyCFunction_Call (func=0xb7ba72ec, arg=0xb7ba7dec,
kw=0x0) at Objects/methodobject.c:73
#2  0xb7e6d05b in PyEval_EvalFrameEx (f=0x80cc40c, throwflag=0) at
Python/ceval.c:3569
#3  0xb7e6ec35 in PyEval_EvalCodeEx (co=0xb7b987b8, globals=0xb7bceacc,
locals=0xb7bceacc, args=0x0, argcount=0, kws=0x0, kwcount=0, defs=0x0,
defcount=0,
    closure=0x0) at Python/ceval.c:2832
#4  0xb7e6ee53 in PyEval_EvalCode (co=0xb7b987b8, globals=0xb7bceacc,
locals=0xb7bceacc) at Python/ceval.c:494
#5  0xb7e8ea8d in PyRun_InteractiveOneFlags (fp=0xb7d48420,
filename=0xb7ec589c "<stdin>", flags=0xbff3c6a8) at Python/pythonrun.c:1273
#6  0xb7e8ecc6 in PyRun_InteractiveLoopFlags (fp=0xb7d48420,
filename=0xb7ec589c "<stdin>", flags=0xbff3c6a8) at Python/pythonrun.c:723
#7  0xb7e8f427 in PyRun_AnyFileExFlags (fp=0xb7d48420,
filename=0xb7ec589c "<stdin>", closeit=0, flags=0xbff3c6a8) at
Python/pythonrun.c:692
#8  0xb7e9a347 in Py_Main (argc=0, argv=0xbff3c774) at Modules/main.c:523
#9  0x080485a2 in main (argc=538976288, argv=0x20202020) at
./Modules/python.c:23


Though I am not exactly sure how to proceed from here.