Have you ever looked at the backend web interface of some of the most popular residential wifi routers? It's shell script. Why? It's a cheap and accessible interpreted language; no need to clutter up your tiny embedded OS with the huge requirements of php, perl, etc when you have all the tools you need in busybox.

CGI apps execute shell scripts all the time. Even if an app executes an app executes an app executes an app, if that app four layers down runs a shell script, the environment is still passed down. Turtles, dude.

Many people don't realize they use CGI scripts, but a lot of people are going to discover they do today.

It could be a simple one-line script that wraps the real command, setting memory limits and the like first. (I used a similar trick to prevent Skype using up all my memory in the past.)