My point is, it's likely that the first line was something like exec("ifconfig " + name), then it was copied and edited to exec("networksetup -getmacaddress"),

My point is, it's likely that the first line was something like exec("ifconfig " + name), then it was copied and edited to exec("networksetup -getmacaddress"), then this exec("cat") had happened. Because laziness. It really wouldn't be a problem (a poor and ineffective code for sure, but no security bugs), if all the arguments would be correctly validated (and escaped, although valid interface names probably don't need it).