Online linux virus/trojan scanner?
 

Hello,

I just had a problem with a relatives windows laptop that showed there was a trojan installed.

I was wondering wether its worth installing clamAV to check for viruses/trojans, or wether there are any online scanners for linux?

Hello,

Are you wanting to install clamAV on the infected system? That would be of little help if the virus/trojan is anything strong. The first thing those bugs do is try to deactivate the antivirus, disable it or hide from it. The best practice is to scan from a 'clean' medium, so use an online scanner (Google comes up with lots) or start from a LiveCD/DVD with a virusscanner and use that one.

Kind regards,

Eric

Thanks Eric :)

There is another option, if you have spare desktop lying around, you can use that as a router.

There are specialty distros designed for a specified purpose like a firewall/router. Some of them have the ability to install modules like anti-virus scanners to do on-the-fly scanning.

If curious, youtube has tutorials on this subject. Smoothwall, IPCop and untangle are a few of the popular firewall distros.

- Cheers

You might try the Trinity Rescue CD. You can boot to it and it can run a virus scan. You need to have an internet connection (preferably wired) to use the virus scans, as it offers you a choice of virus scanners, then downloads the one you select, loads it in the RAM disk, and uses it.

I burned a copy of the CD for grins and giggles and used it to do a disk clean-up on my girlfriend's computer, but I didn't test the AV stuff because I was too lazy to wire the box up to the router.

Theoretically, you can use wireless also, but the instructions aren't real clear about how to connect to a security-enabled wireless network.

Trinity Rescue CD.

I heard about on the Linux Outlaws podcast, if memory serves me correctly.