Virus scanning with KlamAV

by Vincent Danen | Aug 15, 2005 7:00:00 AM

Tags: Cyberthreats, OPEN SOURCE, UNIX, Scanners, Microsoft Windows, Operating systems, Vincent Danen, ClamAV, KlamAV, Linux, virus, Linux Tips Newsletter

Takeaway: This tip tells you about the cross-platform virus scanner ClamAV and the KDE-based front end KlamAV.

While scanning for viruses on Linux, in and of itself, isn't overly useful to the Linux user, it definitely can be if the files are being received or stored by a Windows user, be it the same user who is dual-booting or forwarding messages and files to friends. That is one of the primary reasons that ClamAV, the cross-platform virus scanner, is so popular on Linux.

Of course, unlike other virus scanners, ClamAV is a command-line-controlled application; it has no GUI front-end. On Windows, OS X, and other platforms, ClamAV typically comes with a GUI front-end, or one is readily available. Even on Linux you can run a GUI although it doesn't come with ClamAV itself.

For all the KDE-using folk out there, KlamAV is available. KlamAV is a KDE-based front-end to ClamAV. It can be downloaded from http://klamav.sourceforge.net/ and requires the KDE development files in order to compile. For the quick build, it's as simple as executing:

<code>

$ tar xvjf klamav-0.10.tar.bz2

$ cd klamav-0.10

$ sh ./klamavsetup.sh install

</code>

KlamAV comes with a mail-scanning plugin called klammail that can be used with the KMail e-mail client; it even works with the GTK-based Evolution e-mail client. It also comes with a kernel module called Dazuko that is used for file-access scanning. If an infected file is found, it can either be placed into quarantine or the user can be notified. In this regard, KlamAV works similar to any other commercial virus scanning package for other platforms.

If you thought that ClamAV was good for servers only, think again because KlamAV brings the power of ClamAV to desktop users with slick integration for e-mail and file access monitoring.

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