as there seems to be some confusion, this is my interpretation:

atop is (for some reason) touching memory of processes it monitors.

atop is touching this in an insecure way. An executable can cause atop to corrupt its memory.

this has high potential (although not guaranteed) for allowing RCE within atop via a correctly crafted process that atop monitors.

atop is often run in root, and so this otherwise meaningless RCE becomes privilege escalation, which is bad

either this is correct, or cunningham’s law will bring out the correct interpretation