Introduction
ClamAV is an open-source antivirus engine designed to detect trojans, viruses, malware, and other malicious threats. It's widely used on Linux systems and provides essential protection for servers, email scanning, and system security.
A running instance of Ubuntu 24.04.
However, it is compatible with Ubuntu 22.04 and Debian.
1. Upgrading and upgrading the server's system:
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
2. Install ClamAV and the ClamAV Daemon
sudo apt install clamav clamav-daemon
ClamAV: The antivirus scanner to detect and eliminate malware.
ClamAV Daemon: A service that enables automatic updates and scheduled scans.
3. Verifying the installation
We can do it by checking the installed version of ClamAV:
clamscan --version
Output example:
4. Updating ClamVM database
After installing ClamAV, updating the virus database is essential to ensure your system is protected against the latest threats. Before starting with the update, we have to stop clamav-freshclam:
sudo systemctl stop clamav-freshclam
To download the latest database version:
sudo freshclam
Output example:
Once the database update is completed, restart the clamav-freshclam service, and enable it to run automatically on system boot:
sudo systemctl enable clamav-freshclam --now
To check permissions, ownership, and the last modification dates.
ls -l /var/lib/clamav/
It will also verify that the dates correspond to the most recent updates:
To disable the ClamAV Freshclam Service (optional)
sudo systemctl disable clamav-freshclam --now
It will disable automatic updates.
5. Basic ClamAV Terminal Commands
To scan a specific file:
clamscan /path/to/file
To scan a particular directory:
clamscan -r /path/to/directory
To scan a directory with subdirectories:
clamscan /path/to/file -l /path/to/logfile
Scan and remove infected files:
clamscan /path/to/file --remove
For more commands and help:
clamscan --help
Conclusion
ClamAV is a powerful tool that can help protect your system from viruses and other malware. To keep your system safe, you should keep ClamAV up to date, scan frequently, and scan incoming email.