AVG Anti-virus Free For Linux Now Available For Download
 

AVG Anti-virus Free For Linux Now Available For Download

As of Grisoft's official announcement dated Jan 9, '06 it is now available for download/use for free.

On the AVG for Linux download page as of right now you'll find the User Manual (.PDF), and three RPM files for download: for Mandriva (Mandrake), Red Hat, and SUSE at version 7.1.0022.

I haven't had the time to try it yet, but I'm sure some will and perhaps they could report back their experiences with it here. I'll spare my thoughts on potential security issues which could arise from using a closed source anti-virus on Linux, but I'm sure someone will chime in for me. I also won't address the typical snowballing "but why do I need an anti-virus on Linux?", "Linux doesn't need an anti-virus!" type of issues, good or bad as they may be.

Comments?

Notes: Related articles: digg mention & user comments

It requires some type of registration process that isn't apparent during the installation process. Also, the GUI doesn't clean detected virus. Since the registration process is flawed than it probably isn't worth going through the installation headache. Why bother?

Why is it that all the commercial software for linux is stuff we DON'T NEED ! What about... errr.... There is nothing I need that I don't have....Damn. Oh yeah, google earth ! I NEED google earth, NOW !

Hey, they released Google Earth for Macs. I guess we can expect the Linux version soon enough.. Or simply head to http://maps.google.com/ for now

-A

Thanks Ahmed.

And a DVD authoring suite for dummies. With cheesy templates. I'll buy it. Even more if it's GPL.

Sorry can't help you there ;-)

-A

Let me see: One is not even allowed to evaluate it for business/commercial use?

Let me think:

ClamAV: FREE (as in beer/as in speech)
AVG FREE: Free as in beer, EXCEPT, EXCEPT, and if you're in a business, you can't try before you buy

ClamAV: Open source, completely extensible
AVG FREE: Binary only

ClamAV: Often updated with new signatures several times daily, a cronjob can update it every 15 minutes
AVG FREE: Update once a day max, unless you update it manually

ClamAV: I can run it on anything from embedded solutions to beowolf clusters, have it scan mounted shares, integrate with email and proxy servers
AVG FREE: HAHAHAHAHA

Let me think. . . let me think. . . let me think. Gee, this is a tough decision.

Oh I know! I'll stick with ClamAV, thanks very much.

But isn't ClamAV an anti-windows-virus antivirus? AVG's maker is claiming it's an anti-Linux-virus antivirus... :confused:

...and how many Linux viruses are still alive? I've been told they're all extinct in the wild, because the security holes they exploited have all been patched out of existance!!

So why do we need AVG's new "product"? What is it doing? How is it supposed to be working?

ClamAV does detect Linux worms, viruses (what few there are), etc.

I had an apache installation I opened up as a test (with a known-vulnerable OpenSSL build) and sure enough, it got hit by slapper within hours and ClamAV positively identified it.

Anti-Linux virus antivirus programs are pretty much snake oil. There are VERY few Linux viruses, and aside from the many "proofs of concept" that the likes of AVG and Symantec love to show off to "prove" *nix is vulnerable, you can count the real viruses that ever made it out to the wild on your fingers - and they tend not to spread due to the inherent security of *nix.

Applicatios on the other hand, can be very vulnerable to worms. Take any of several Apache exploits over the years - those aren't *nix vulnerabilities but application vulnerabilities, which makes the worms cross-platform. The good news is that if you have hardened your systems the worms can't do much of anything because it'll be confined to a user account (like wwwrun or nobody) which has zero access outside of its chrooted area.

This is a free version for personal use. If you want to evaluate it for commercial use, you need the trail version of AVG professional. So yes, you can evaluate it for commercial use, but that's not what this version is.

PS - has anyone here used the free Linux version? I'm familiar with the free version for Windows, and I'd be interested to see how the Linux one compares.

Yes, but the point is that.. why do we want "free non-free software" on linux? We are forced to accept it in many cases for drivers, etc. but it's definitely not ideal. Continuing to use those when this when there are completely free alternatives (free in price and free to modify) doesn't seem to make sense.

If the "free non-free" product is the best tool for the job, then of course it makes sense to use it!

I'll grant that this is true from a purely practical point of view.

However, if one of your values is promoting free software, then using software like this is not beneficial to that goal.

A lot of people use illegally copied software rather than open alternatives as well, because it's easy enough to obtain free. However, it would be better for everyone if they simply used the truly free alternatives as that's one way to support them. The more people that use something the more interest in developing it there will be (and of course it's good to support those projects that you can).

Anyway, I just don't feel like proprietary software is ideal, and so pushing it from an idealistic point of view is a bad thing in the long run. I'm sure a lot of people don't care about this.

so can only rpm based distros use it then?

kinda sucks, but i would say stop bitchin at AVG for giving you something for free. its not a bad thing that they are acknowledging linux is it?

I have tested AVG for Linux. Using four test files it failed misserably by only detecting one of the four files.

ClamAV on the other hand caught all four files, very quickly.

I don't hold anything against AVG anymore than any other proprietary software company. I'm not complaining about what they are doing just saying it isn't really useful to the long term goals of GNU/Free software.

I wouldn't say it's a good thing when linux gets proprietary software though. Is it bad? Maybe, maybe not, but I don't think it's good. More than likely it just is.

http://www.grisoft.com/doc/71/lng/us/tpl/tpl01 has a number of tarballs for those of us who don't use rpms.

Linux is supposed to be about choice. The more programs that become available for Linux, the greater the choice that Linux users have, which is a good thing for all Linux users.

I don't know what your basis is for that statement. Choice certainly is one of the good thing about linux, but ultimately linux is free software. GNU doesn't seek to just provide an alternative to proprietary software, but to replace it. It's understandable to me to use proprietary software for practical reasons when it is actually better for a certain task, but it's certainly not compatible with the underlying philosophy responsible for the creation of linux and the GPL.

Having read Stallman a good bit I know that while commercial software is compatible with GNU/FSF goals proprietary software is not.

Linux is about choice, and about free software. AVG may be about choice, but has nothing to do with the free nature of Linux.

I think it's a great thing that more commercial apps are coming to Windows. In fact I am anxiously awaiting the day that Adobe CS2 (or CS3?) comes to Linux.

Just because the operating system is free doesn't mean you can't use commercial software on it. Similarly, just because Windows is commercial doesn't mean you can't run free software on it. There is absolutely nothing to say that every piece of software you use has to have exactly the same license!

As for the comment that tyhe availablilty of proprietarysoftware for Linux may be bad, how can it be bad? What is bad about people having a greater range of choices? Even if you personally choose not to take advantage of the choices on offer, you still haven't lost anything by being offered the choice!

AVG for Linux, my experience was not good
 

I downloaded AVG Free for Linux and installed it into my Pentium III 600 running Red Hat Fedora Core. I ran into a brick wall trying to register the program. After reading the manual I input the code that was supposed to get me registered. I answered the two questions it asked which were "What is your name?" and "What is the name of your business?" (Huh?) Hey guys, this is the AVG Free Linux version, why do you ask if I have a business? Well, OK. To please the registration god, I answered "Retired". The very next thing that was supposed to happen was my registration number would appear. Well it didn't, and if the AVG forum is any indication, it didn't for everybody else! I got the program to run by using the trial version ID number, but was advised on the cheery screen that the program would only be good for 30 days. I figured that would be enough time for me to get to their web site and get the info I needed. WRONG!

The web site only had answers for AVG Free for Windows. Seems they released the Linux program but haven't gotten around to setting up a Linux based FAQ section yet. I couldn't leave a comment on their forum, because you have to be registered with them to leave any comments, and that part ain't working. I emailed one contact at AVG, and was politely told that they do not give technical support to free users. So there!

It is now removed from my computer.:mad:

And right on cue, here is the obligatory joke:

1. Introduce 'free' antivirus software for Linux, exclude business use
2. REQUIRE entry of business name, effectively forcing users to admit to violating the license (real or imagined violation)
3. ??????
4. PROFIT!

I just downloaded AVG free for Linux.

First I tried to install the RPM package using the command line code given in the manual. This failed due to dependencies, but I was able to install it perfectly well using GURPMI.

This version doesn't seem to have been written any differently from the commercial version, and still includes a registration question about the name of the company. As I was using it privately, I entered "n/a" here. It then asked for a registration number, which I hadn't been given. I left this field blank, and it seemed happy with that.

This program seems acceptable as a virus reproter, but if you were expecting a fully functional port of the Windows version (as I was) you'd be very disapointed. The interface is a lot more basic than the Windows version, and basically all it does is report viruses. There is no resident shield, no boot scanner, no email client integration, no system tray embedding. There isn't even an option to automatically heal infected files from the GUI (though this is available from the command-line module). In the manual it states which I think demonstrates how user-friendly it isn't!

In conclusion, this product is badly written, has a confusing registration routine that includes questions that are not applicable, and has a grossly inferior feature set to its Windows version. A very disappointing product all round.

So in other words, you're served better with the clamav and Klamav pair, which is free AND free! :)

mmm... clams


Seriously though, I think i'll try clamAV because it makes me feel good inside.

I have one concern that I want to pass on to everybody. I have two computers, one is a Pentium IV running Windows XP and all the bells & whistles of anti-virus and anti-spyware equipmnt I can jam into it.

The other computer is my older pentium III and I have the HD partitioned into Windows 98 and Fedora Core Linux. Windows 98 is protected, but I am still looking for a good AV program for the Linux side. Since I am still experimenting with Linux, I would prefer a free program as my Windows systems use paid programs.

I happened to be on my Pentium IV, when I read the comments about clamAV, so I visited their website, and as I was reading the information there, my anti-virus program stopped an inquiry that was trying to get my credit card number.

I honestly don't know where the originator of that "request" came from, but I just figured you should know this and be aware of it.

The problem with all "Linux Antivirus" programs is that they're essentially looking for Windows viruses getting through your e-mail server. Because there are NO viruses currently "in the wild" (the last one having gone extinct quite a few years ago), they don't have any rule to go by to look for a Linux virus.

Windows viruses (virii?) are able to propagate by taking advantage of largish Windows security holes - many of which are there for the "convenience" of the Windows users, and being marketing points for Microsoft, they are loathe to remove them. These are items like autorunning applications that arrive as e-mail attachments, and having the user of a standalone home computer system by default being the Administrator (something *nixes avoid through the Root User concept).

In other words, you may have been trained by your Windows experience to think you need an antivirus program, but with Linux you really don't need such a beast. Unless you're running an e-mail server for Windows desktop boxen.

There are no "linux viruses" currently in the wild however there are several Apache/OpenSSL viruses in the wild - in fact I had one box get hit by one - it was one I had opened up with a default SuSE 9.3 apache/openssl configuration, and sure enough slapper compiled and installed itself on that box. I cleaned it, patched the vulnerability and then there was no repeat of the exploit. ClamAV detected the infection and the --move option moved it into a junk directory, as expected. The production box was installed with the patch in place and so far there has been no infection, except for one file on a samba share when I set up a client's machine on the network to clean it.

My point? Although there may not be Linux-specific exploits in the wild, there ARE cross-platform application viruses/worms in the wild and UNIX is not impervious, be it Linux. BSD, MacOS, or any other (foo)nix variant. If you have a vulnerable apache build or a vulnerable module installed, your box IS vulnerable to the worm. Therefore, utilities such as clamav have just as much value on Linux as they do on Windows or any other platform.

Also note: it is a good practice to make sure apache has its own account to run under, samba has its own account, and so forth. That way, a vulnerability in one application cannot spread system-wide and you can be more assured that a stupid worm won't result in a rooted box.

The fellow I was responding to, JohnDA, is running what looks very much like a home computer situation. These apply especially to home users:

From Librenix


Or from Rick's Rants:

Rick goes on:
So to keep yourself safe, the home user shoud:
- keep Home backed up
- never log in as root
- keep your system patched with whatever update floats your boat (apt-get, etc) or comes with your distribution
- never log in as root.

Oh, and I nearly forgot: Never log in as root.


(Did I mention never to log in as Root?)

While there may be no system tray embeding, or boot scanner, I still think you've gone a little overboard. I think saw some e-mail client features, although I can't be sure. I don't use e-mail clients.

There IS a "Resident Shield) called the AVG Daemon. It requires a third party Kernel Module, which often requires a recompile of the Kernel.

I believe there is an checkbox in the configuration screen, to enable automatic cleaning of files. I don't recall which tab it is in though.


I would have enjoyed testing it. Since I just had to work on an infected Win box, but something has gotten corrupted on my system. I just had to run a "reiserfsck --rebuild-tree" to fix it, and AVG hasn't worked since. I had to use QtF-Prot instead.

I did enjoy how user friendly AVGGUI was, compared to most other Linux AVs. I was just starting to like it. Now I just have to figure out what the error "avgscan: relocation error: avgscan: undefined symbol: __dynamic_cast_2" means...

Thanks, Lordshipmayhem, very interesting info there!

Linux is a new baby for me, and I am still dabbing my toes into the Linux lake, so these discussions are very useful to me. I appreciate the information.

John

Here's a step-by-step install guide (with screenshots) for those running Ubuntu Breezy:

"HOWTO: Install AVG free anti-virus"

i'm use suse 10.0 it can install avg antivirus.. pls help