Here we see one possible mechanism by which the Internet will tumble:

https://developers.slashdot.org/story/21/12/18/0032209/security-firm-blumira-discovers-major-new-log4j-attack-vector

A new "log4j" attack vector.

<This vector significantly expands the attack surface. How much so? It can be used on services running as localhost, which are not exposed to a network.