=== What is the potential impact? An attacker exploiting an arguments injection vulnerability will be able to add arbitrary argument to a system binary call. Depending on the command the parameters are added to, this might lead to arbitrary command execution. The impact depends on the access control measures taken on the target system OS. In the worst-case scenario, the process runs with root privileges, and therefore any OS commands or programs may be affected. Below are some real-world scenarios that illustrate some impacts of an attacker exploiting the vulnerability. ==== Denial of service and data leaks In this scenario, the attack aims to disrupt the organization's activities and profit from data leaks. An attacker could, for example: * download the internal server's data, most likely to sell it * modify data, send malware * stop services or exhaust resources (with fork bombs for example) This threat is particularly insidious if the attacked organization does not maintain a disaster recovery plan (DRP). ==== Root privilege escalation and pivot In this scenario, the attacker can do everything described in the previous section. The difference is that the attacker also manages to elevate their privileges to an administrative level and attacks other servers. Here, the impact depends on how much the target company focuses on its Defense In Depth. For example, the entire infrastructure can be compromised by a combination of OS injections and *misconfiguration* of: * Docker or Kubernetes clusters * cloud services * network firewalls and routing * OS access control