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xp_cmdshell Not A Security Risk

Kevin Hill makes a great point:

A stored procedure that, out of the box, is disabled and has no explicit rights granted (or denied) is locked down to everyone but those in the sysadmin server role.

If someone exploits your SQL Server via xp_cmdshell, its because you LET them, either by granting permissions or by putting someone in sysadmin that clearly should not have been there.

For this in more detail, check out Sean McCown’s post from 2015.