https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=935898.msg10259625#msg10259625
Without more familiarity with the code, my reading of this code is that it would, at most, have allowed the hacker to push the contents of some file (ONLY if said file/directory is set readable by the username executing the irc server and/or infected client program!) back to the person (and others) who put it in place.
This code is generic enough to alllow everything from uploading a webshell, to running a local kernel exploit to elevate privs. Without more familiarity with the code, my reading of this code is that it would, at most, have allowed the hacker to push the contents of some file (ONLY if said file/directory is set readable by the username executing the irc server and/or infected client program!) back to the person (and others) who put it in place.
Think about it like this: In Unix/Linux ANYTHING is a file.