[thayne]

> it has been abused by external tools as a way to identify the program just because there was no other alternative.

There is an alternative, at least on linux: /proc/$pid/exe.

And if your question is "what executable is running" that is a better way to get it. But for a program like busybox, argv[0] is also important.

[account42]

Pretty much any OS lets you examine which binaries have been mapped into the process adddress space meaning there are plenty alternatives.