Clamav

[Michael Miles]

On 04/16/2010 03:00 PM, Seann Clark wrote:
> Michael Miles wrote:
>> On 04/16/2010 01:39 PM, jdow wrote:
>>> From: "Patrick O'Callaghan"<pocallaghan at gmail.com>
>>> Sent: Thursday, 2010/April/15 12:50
>>>
>>>
>>>> On Thu, 2010-04-15 at 12:22 -0700, Michael Miles wrote:
>>>>> I have removed all and I will wait for proper instruction as I really
>>>>> do not know enough about this OS
>>>> Given that you say so yourself, the logical question is "why do you 
>>>> need
>>>> Clamav"? Clamav is usually installed by people running mail servers 
>>>> for
>>>> users who access them from Windows. If all you're doing is reading 
>>>> mail
>>>> in Linux, it's extremely unlikely that you even need it. In 35 
>>>> years of
>>>> using first Unix and then Linux, I have yet to see a single virus that
>>>> wasn't a proof-of-concept demo.
>>> 1) I have seen at least one active exploit, I fortunately recognized
>>> myself, for Linux in my<mumble>  years with computers. (longer than
>>> yours, sonny, although I took a 6 year hiatus in there. {^_-}) (Even
>>> my beloved Amiga (made some money off that system) had online 
>>> exploits.)
>>>
>>> 2) Some of us live on mixed networks. Open Sores does NOT pay for my
>>> bread, water, and roof, let alone any recreation. So I have Windows
>>> machines around. ClamAV is handy to have in the Linux machine, which
>>> is the master server for the system.
>>>
>>> 3) If you read the kernel list a little more you'd discover enough 
>>> chatter
>>> about obvious items of vulnerability you'd want to put a condom on your
>>> computer.
>>>
>>> 4) I will agree with you as far as to say Linux is not as vulnerable as
>>> Windows. That is mostly because it is still perceived as being a 
>>> boutique
>>> OS with savvy users. When that changes I expect to see numbers of 
>>> active
>>> exploits out on the Internet to increase sharply. I would prefer a 
>>> casual
>>> date put on his condom BEFORE rather than AFTER he makes mostions to
>>> impregnate me, which at my age is hopeless.
>>>
>>> {^_^}   Fortunately Joanne has not had to reinstall YET.
>> I started with the Vic 20 then went to the 64
>>
>> I had a Amiga 3000 up to a 68060 and of course lightwave and the 
>> video toaster by newtek.
>>
>> Now that Amiga was a system which I adored
>>
>> I find Linux similar but I love the drag and drop of the amiga 
>> especially for devices.
>>
>>
>> I run an Amd Phenom 2 945 now initialy with Win 7 x64 ultimate.
>>
>> Am totally fed up with Windows
>>
>> I like Fedora very much and am extremely impressed with security.
>>
>> I freaked out when Clamav found a trojan in my mozilla directory only 
>> to see it was the test virus that comes with clamav.
>>
>> I have a home network here with 2 other computers on it. Both Win 7 
>> machines
>>
>>
>> We do not share mail service and only share music and videos from 
>> this machine
>> (fat 4 tera byte hd)
>>
>>
>> Anyway I think I will let it run for a bit but I'm still not sure I 
>> want it on.
>> Still have really no need unless viruses start to take hold with linux.
>>
>> At the very same time once the damage is done by a nasty virus it is 
>> too late.
>>
>> Some protection is needed, I would think
>>
>>
>> I put in a backup Win 7 dvd and scanned it
>>
>> Clam av found 4 on the dvd. Bitdefender  for unices found 15
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Michael
> It is mostly a personal choice, but if you want to protect the two 
> doze computers from infecting each other with shared files that are 
> controlled on the Fedora box, you can run clam on that to catch it. I 
> run Symantec Corporate on all my workstations, and on my fileserver (a 
> Fedora box with a large amount of space) to protect my systems from 
> spreading virus'. I am less concerned with the linux box getting 
> infected, though, as was pointed out earlier in the thread, the 
> attackers go for the lowest hanging fruit first. At the very least it 
> can help protect against spreading of known viruses.
>
>
> As a note, Virus Total is a good proving ground on how most AV 
> programs just plain suck half the time especially with bleeding edge 
> bugs. (Search Sans ISC for articles on that aspect, interesting read 
> if you have time to kill)
>
> ~Seann
Thanks for all the input.

Is Clamav the best alternative?

It missed viruses that Bitdefender for unices caught.


Although Bitdefender will cost me $$$ which I do not like

Other than just good practice.

I did mess up and was leaving terminal open in root for a while just for 
convenience but that practice has been stopped