antivirus avast! for Linux/Unix Servers

avast! for Linux/Unix Servers is an antivirus solution for the more and more popular Linux and BSD environments. Considering its robust design and mail scanning support, it is primarily intended for Linux (or BSD) based servers; it can be used on desktop computers as a desktop solution, but pricing assumes server usage.

Thanks to its flexible deamon architecture, avast! for Linux/Unix Servers can be used for both filesystem and network traffic scanning, such as real-time monitoring of mail (SMTP).

avast! for Linux/Unix Servers features an antivirus suite, which integrates the avast! antivirus kernel, and is designed to be used on a UNIX-like operating systems. The suite consists of a command-line scanner, resident scanner running as a daemon and a client for accessing the resident scanner.

Antivirus kernel

The antivirus kernel of avast! For Linux is identical to the one for Windows systems, which means that all high-end features typical in an AV kernel for Windows, are included in Linux version too.

The latest version of avast! antivirus kernel features outstanding detection abilities, together with high performance. You can expect 100% detection of In-the-Wild viruses (viruses already spreading between users) and excellent detection of Trojan horses with minimum of false positives.

The kernel is certified by ICSA Labs; it frequently takes part in the tests of Virus Bulletin magazine, often yielding the VB100 award.

As avast! for Windows , avast! engine for Linux features outstanding unpacking support too. It can scan inside almost same number of archives as under Windows, with exception of MAPI, CAB, ACE, CHM, 7ZIP and NTFS streams. Following archives can be scanned: ARJ, ZIP, MIME (+ all associated formats), DBX (Outlook Express archives), RAR, TAR, GZIP, BZIP2, ZOO, ARC, LHA/LHX, TNEF (winmail.dat), CPIO, RPM, ISO, and SIS. It also supports a number of executable packers (such as PKLite, Diet, UPX, ASPack, FSG, MEW etc.).

Automatic updates

Updates of virus database are another key need in virus protection. In the current version, the updates are not incremental. When the virus definition file is changed, it is necessary to download and replace the whole VPS file.

Command line scanner

Experienced users will appreciate a classic on-demand scanner, controlled from the command line. It allows scanning of files in specified directories and both local and remote volumes. Of course, the command line scanner also works on volumes mounted over network.

The program is very flexible; it accepts a lot of additional arguments and switches. It is able to generate extensive report files that can be used for analysis.

The scanner is able to run in STDIN/STDOUT mode to use it as a pipe filter. This mode is intended to be used in shell scripts.

Background scanner

The antivirus daemon running on background is intended for intensive usage. The daemon serves to other applications on the system, third-party applications can access the antivirus daemon by UNIX sockets. The daemon can be used in a specific directory under specified user account. A client for accessing the antivirus daemon is part of the installation package.

3rd party software

MTA  + MDA:

• avast4mail: a mail content  filter for Postfix, qmail, Sendmail, Exim, procmail and maildrop. The software scans email messages for viruses and drops or marks infected messages or send notification messages.
• avast4milter: content filter for sendmail using the milter API. It allowes to drop or mark infected messages or send notification to message recipient.
  
• amavisd-new: rewritten version of amavis maintained by Mark Martinec. Patch and instructions how to integrate avast! for Linux/Unix Server  is part of avast4server package.
  

File system:

• avast4guard: on-access scanner based on Dazuko available for Linux and FreeBSD.
• samba-vscan: provides on access scaning on Samba shares maintained by Rainer Link. Patch and instructions how to integrate avast! for Linux/Unix Server  is part of avast4server package.