'Revolutionary' file-sharing software Earthstation 5 contains malicious code

Malicious code

There exists malicious code in ES5.exe's "Search Service" packet handler. By sending packet 0Ch, sub-function 07h to the "Search Service"'s IP: Port, a remote attacker could delete any file the user is sharing. If the remote attacker uses "filenames" with a relative path in them (eg. "......WINDOWSNOTEPAD.EXE"), the remote attacker could also delete files in eg. the windows and windowssystem32 folders, or any other folder on the same partition as any of the shared folders. Since most users using Windows are in the Administrators group, a remote attacker could also delete the C: BOOT.INI file which is a required boot file used by ntldr.

IMPORTANT: This is not a bug! They intentionally added this code to ES5.

Vulnerabilities

There also exists a lot of other vulnerabilities in
ES5 (eg. DoS attacks, buffer overflow bugs, and so on), but these all seem
to be unintentional. Another advisory may have more info on these
vulnerabilities, but I'm not their beta tester so don't hold your breath.

Conclusion

The people behind ES5 have intentionally added malicious code to ES5. If you have followed the ES5 discussions on message boards and read what the ES5 people have said and done (eg. DoS attacking BitTorrent sites), this comes as no surprise. The question then is "why did they do it?" I'm sure they won't tell us, but here's a theory: They could be working for the RIAA, MPAA, or a similar organization. Once they have enough users on their ES5 network, they would start deleting all copyrighted files they own which their users are sharing. The users wouldn't know what hit them.