Re: antivirus for linux

[Mircea MITU <mmitu () bitdefender com>]

On Tue, 2004-06-15 at 20:24 -0300, Bruno França dos Reis wrote:
> Hello guys
>
> I'm kinda new to linux, and getting more and more worried about security. I 
> was wondering: is it necessary for me to have an anti-virus application? If 
> so, is it a "live scanner", like the ones I know for windows?


Usually you need a linux antivirus to filter and protect windows
workstations from the network. This means a gateway antivirus, like a
mail-server filter, file server antivirus (for samba) or other proxies.

A good linux antivirus includes a command-line scanner which can be
ordered or scheduled to scan the filesystem or remote mount points
(Samba, NFS, FTP, etc).

To protect only your Linux systems, you need a regular Linux Antivirus,
IDS/IPS solutions and a good firewall policy. Additional tools like
chkrootkit also may help you.

> Do you recommend using an anti-virus software? If so, which?


Humm, try freshmeat and google:
http://freshmeat.net/search/?q=linux+antivirus
http://www.google.com/search?q=samba+antivirus

> Moreover, I have a linux firewall. Is there any way for me to detect virus 
> activity trying either to break into a computer (like Sasser or others like 
> it) or to detect incoming mail with virus? Note: my firewall isn't my mail 
> server. I was wondering if it could sniff connections to pop mail servers and 
> detect virus code.


Yes, you can have some antivirus proxies (SMTP/POP3/etc) which can scan
the traffic for viruses and malware. Also you can implement IDS/IPS
solutions.


> Thanks in advance.
>
> Bruno Reis

Regards,

-- 
Mircea MITU
BitDefender - Secure your every bit
Linux Security Solutions - http://linux.bitdefender.com
PGP Key ID - 79665DEF



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