Feature Creep too Often Means Vulnerability Creep
A basic step to improving the security of a server is to shutdown services and remove code you don't need. If you don't need ftp on a server, you don't run it and you certainly don't leave a compiler on a production server. At the same time we take this "strip it down to the bare essentials" approach on servers, we tend to the other direction with desktop apps and the ability to exploit MS Jet database vulnerabilities from MS Word demonstrates where that can lead.
Some recent exploits use emails to send victims two files, a Word doc and an Access database. After the victim saves the two attachments and opens the Word document, Word opens the Access file and runs the exploit code. (Shinsuke Honjo has a detailed explanation of how the exploit works at McAfee Avert Labs blog).
Sure there are scenarios where it makes sense to access a database from a word processing document but opening access to an external application opens access to its vulnerabilities as well. Adding more features, used by a small percentage of overall users, does not justify exposing them and other users to unnecessary risks, especially with known unsafe file types.
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