State of virus scanners on Linux?

[/dev/urandom]

Virus scanners are never trustworthy enough.

[monkeyboy]

Bit Defender works in Ubuntu, but crashes in Mint 14. None of the fixes worked here.

Is BD in the repositories? I used it a few years ago and really liked it. Thanks

[dee.]

Linux needs virus scanners like a fish needs a bicycle.

This idiocy of using virus scanners on linux has to stop. All you're doing by using them is legitimizing this scam that is being perpetuated by antivirus companies, who are trying to push a flawed solution to a non-existent problem (on linux). Antivirus doesn't really even work that well at catching malware - even on windows. It is a fundamentally flawed approach, because it's a reactionary approach - the antivirus companies are constantly reacting to individual malware authors and having to update their databases in order to catch all the new malware - which means that the antivirus software will always be one step behind the virus authors. It will never provide security against newest exploits.

Not only that, but antivirus software is also notoriously inaccurate. They give more false positives than they do real ones. But the antivirus companies don't even want to fix this, because the layman isn't going to be able to tell a false positive from a real one, so giving false positives makes their software look more useful. Some small software authors have suffered harassment from clueless users when some crappy antivirus has flagged their software as malware, and the av companies refuse to fix it even when it's reported to them. They don't care as long as it isn't a big software house that can sue their pants off...

If there are new exploits, antivirus won't protect against them anyway, and old exploits tend to be already patched against in the kernel/other software.

[eanfrid]

Very true. I didn't make it clear the first time: the purpose of an antivirus on a Linux machine is not to protect this machine. Any antivirus on your Linux machine is only useful to prevent the transmission of some well-known virus-like threats to Windows machines. Antivirus software works like a medieval armor: it will not protect from carelessness, deception, treachery and poison.

[peterpan5150]

Hello,
Comodo makes a free antivirus scanner for linux distros.
It is running perfectly on my LM14 Cinnamon OS.
You can find the download link for all major linux distros here :
http://www.comodo.com/home/download/download.php?prod=antivirus-for-linux&track=
After downloading and installing it, run sudo run /opt/COMODO/post_setup.sh in the terminal.
Accept licence, and finish installation.
Run comodo from menu, update virus defintions and chose language interface (more->preferences)

[nomko]

Very true. I didn't make it clear the first time: the purpose of an antivirus on a Linux machine is not to protect this machine. Any antivirus on your Linux machine is only useful to prevent the transmission of some well-known virus-like threats to Windows machines. Antivirus software works like a medieval armor: it will not protect from carelessness, deception, treachery and poison.

This explains a lot when to use (or not) an antivirus tool: viewtopic.php?f=61&t=108103#p618715

[nomko]

Comodo makes a free antivirus scanner for linux distros.

Great news! I loved Comodo when i was using Windows.

After downloading and installing it, run sudo run /opt/COMODO/post_setup.sh in the terminal.

nomko@mint14desktop ~ $ sudo run /opt/COMODO/post_setup.sh
sudo: run: command not found
Something is not right with that command.....

[xenopeek]

Probably an extra "run" in that sentence? This might work better:

Code: Select all

sudo /opt/COMODO/post_setup.sh