ClamAV: Entire System Scan

afx5iafx5i
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Hi, there.



Got a question regarding virus scan in OS X. Wonder if anyone can help.

I know there're almost no viruses/spyware in the world of OS X. Is there a simple way for me to do a complete system scan with ClamAV? ( just in case )

I have tried `clamscan -r /`, but it seems to me that it loops at the "/Volumes" folder and takes forever to scan the "/net" folder when using the winhelp2002 hosts file.



Forgive me for not buying the commercial products, but budget is certainly an important point in my case.

I've tried Housecall from TrendMicro, but it doesn't seem to work on my Macbook running Leopard.

Does anyone know any other free online virus scanner that would does the job?



Thanks very much for your help. Take care.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    endymionendymion Posts: 375member
    Maybe you should use the GUI version instead. ClamXAV
  • Reply 2 of 3
    sherman homansherman homan Posts: 167member
    I don't understand what you mean about using the WinHelp2002 host file. If you are running Windows on your Mac, then you need a Windows anti-virus program. Clam isn't going to help you there! When the Clam scan finishes it is going to tell you that there are no viruses on your Mac. There really aren't any.
  • Reply 3 of 3
    afx5iafx5i Posts: 37member
    First of all, thank you both for your reply.



    I know it's not urgent to have an anti-virus solution for OS X now, but I just wanted to make an assumption to see whether ClamAV could be the ultimate alternative to other commercial softwares. To me, I don't see a reason to keep on buying anti-virus software every single year.



    I've read ClamXAV's FAQ on scanning the entire computer (http://www.clamxav.com/index.php?page=FAQ#7a). According to its suggestion, an entire computer scan can be initiated by choosing every single folder in "/" displayed in the Finder. However, I don't think this can be considered an entire system scan, because there are many invisible folders in OS X (e.g. /private, /bin, /usr, etc.) and hidden files in "/" itself will not be scanned when only choosing items displayed in the Finder.



    Personally, I don't use ClamXAV because its ClamAV engine is usually older than the one I build from the source code. For example, the newest ClamAV available is 0.94, but ClamXAV uses 0.93.3. To me, newer means faster and probably better



    Regarding to the WinHelp2002 hosts file, there is a site (http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm) that generously provides a list of known malware sites. It makes use of the hosts file feature to redirect all these malware sites to 127.0.0.1. My experience is, once you use this hosts file in OS X, there will be thousands of folders be made in "/net". These folders are named according to the entries I added in the hosts file. However, if you try to let clamscan scan through the /net folder, it will just simply take forever.



    Anyway, I really know OS X is pretty safe to malwares. All I wanted to do was trying to make it even more safer. Besides, this is the "Genius Bar", when not make some challenge to ourselves?



    Thanks again. Your help are always appreciated.
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