Simple "anti-virus" file checker

ian54 · 03-05-2002, 06:41 AM

I remember on early Windows you could get a simple utility to scan and record the file sizes (or checksums) of all programs in the system and report any differences since the last scan, it was a very simple anti-virus and anti-tamper utility.

Is there an example for Linux, although I'm a newbie I have over 15 years experience with UNIX and I'm sure I could write a quick C program or shell script to do this task, but just so I don't re-invent the wheel ...

TIA

Mara · 03-05-2002, 07:27 AM

Maybe md5sum?

ian54 · 03-05-2002, 09:26 AM

I was thinking of using md5sum in a script at first, but does it also detect "missing" or "new" files too ? I suppose doing a simple diff against two md5sum outputs might be an easy solution.

Mara · 03-05-2002, 10:11 AM

When there is an error (no such file) most programs return value different than 0. So you can use if instruction.

isajera · 03-05-2002, 12:03 PM

if you do an search on linux-virus checking, you're going to get some pretty scant results. most of what you'd find would be people saying there are no viruses under linux, or there are only a few viruses under linux, ect. ect. the good real info that you're looking for will be hard to come by.

if you can't find anything on sourceforge or freshmeat to perform the checks you're talking about, you might be best off writing it yourself.

unSpawn · 03-05-2002, 12:35 PM

If you're talking checksumming and such, check out "file integrity checker" apps like Aide, Tripwire or Samhain.