It will challenge the religious dogma from all the jobsworths out there, but I would love to find just one REAL example of a security breach via xp_commandshell.

Yes a malicious employee or an external user of a poorly written site could potentially execute anything that’s permitted in the context of the SQL service account. But in the real world has anyone in a position to exploit this ever done anything they couldn’t have done via many other methods? Tie this loophole down by via well managed service accounts by all means, but don’t handicap database applications by accepting poor network security

Honestly! In a world where buffer overflows afflict almost every browser, most SQL servers operate as domain admin and the majority of Oracle shops still use passwords that haven’t changed for years there are better uses for everyone’s time.