I'm seeking people opinions on anti-virus software for use under linux.

I understand that there arn't many viruses written from linux and there unlikly to cause much trouble unless there run as a root user however there are a few reasons why i feel antivirus for linux is still a good idea.

Just because there aren't many viruses now doesn't mean there won't be any later. I doubt it would be hard for a virus to be written that would beable to exploit some local root vuln such as the recent mrmap exploit that apears to effect 2.2, 2.4 and 2.6.0 kernels (I don't know how many systems there are out there running a 1.x series kernel =P, 2.6.1 seems to be fixed though) this would allow the virus to do lots of naughty things.

Scanning for windows. Linux often acts as a fileserver for windows machines, holding e-mail or perhapse as a failsafe option when a windows box is too screwed with viruses to use (a linux live cd or duel boot could help save things).

Worms, there are several linux worms around and.. uh.. yeh worms

What Anti-Virus software for Linux is avilable and how do they compare to windows antivirus such as Norton and Vet? Ive heard of F-Prot (commerical but free for home use) and Clam (GPL'ed). Does any one know of any antivirus comparisons eg "F-Prot detected x% of our test viruses, while Clam detected y%"

I use amavisd and clamav to scan incoming mail. ( ive setup a little server using postfix and spamassassin and stuff to collect my mail)
It scans for windows viruses , and has already saved my computer at least once

Debian 3.0r2 ships with several virus control packages. Check out packages <dot> debian <dot> org <slash> stable <slash> allpackages and perform a search for the word "virus".

Good luck...

The anti-virus software for Unix based OS's don't compare very well to software for MSWindows. But then, windows has tens of thousands virii, worms, etc. to plague it. Linux has perhaps 80. Updatings virus defs takes a quarter second for Linux; a quarter hour for windows. As Linux gains popularity, esp in the corporate market, look for a more concerted effort from the hackers wearing black hats. For now, hacker in Linux is a good thing. Hackers improve things (call them 'hackers wearing white hats'). The bad guys will eventually turn their efforts to Linux. Note: sometime around March 2001, there was a proof-of-concept virus capable of infecting both windows and Linux systems. Didn't do any damage; just proved it could be done.
You have been warned!
Now, we need concerted effort in the anti-virus arena for Linux, before the problem slaps us in the face. If you know of someone or some organization working on that problem, give a hand. Better, give a few quid to help fund the effort. It it's open source, you will be the winner.

So if someone wants to be protected he should do what? Surf the net without any antivirus or use one?If yes which one is believed 2 b the best anyway?

just a simple iptables firewall should protect you just fine on the internet, also if your realy paranoid you can set that up and also set up come sorta ip loging util so youll know what is going and coming in thru the firewall, aintvirus isint teh bigest deal, just have it scan your comp when your not using it and you should be just fine

I was thinking of going back to windows cause they have all the good firewall programs and anti virus programs plus the ad and spy ware removal programs and the trojan hunter programs. It's so quiet here in the non windows world. Right now they got that doom virus going around and we got nothing. Seriously though there are a lot of linux, mac etc users out there. A lot of servers and desktops. If someone was able to write a virus or worm they would have done so by now. Can someone point to a linux virus

I don't know a link to a linux virus but i sure know the link to the greatest , more expensive and most devastating pc virus ever : www.microsoft.com

Ha,ha,ha,ha!

I use f-prot to scan mine. It works well and is fairly easy to install. Get it from here:

www.f-prot.com

Don't forget to update those signatures though.

Later


windoze is a bit buggy or maybe wormy.

you might call it the mother of all viruses