Canimaan Software Ltd ClamXav reviewed and rated by IT pros, who share the good, the bad, and the ugly, along with tips and recommendations for getting the most out of it. Sep 15, 2014 ClamXav for Mac Review ClamXav may be a well-known name in Mac security software, but it just can't compete with other free options. By Jill Scharr 15 September 2014 Comments (1). ClamXav for Mac gives you the tools to keep your computer clean. With an uncluttered interface and convenient functionality, this app is a good choice for most computer-savvy users. Review: Fight Mac malware with Avast Free Antivirus. Scrivener: A Mac app designed by writers for writers. Burn and share CDs and DVDs with Toast Titanium.

Tool and Usage

ClamXAV is the best antivirus / anti-malware out there. The small yearly fee covers daily updates, upgrades and support. Frankly that is a small price to pay to protect your computer and data. The developer is dedicated to the app – and version 3.0.7 is the best ever.

Project health

Links

Why this tool?

ClamAV is a popular tool to detect malicious software or malware. While it calls itself an antivirus engine, it probably won't encounter many viruses, as they have become rare. It is more likely to find other forms of malware like worms, backdoors, and ransomware. ClamAV can be used in a few ways, from doing an occasional scan up to scanning in batch. ClamAV does not do on-access scanning but can be combined with other tools to obtain similar functionality. ClamAV is often used to support scanning incoming emails for malicious content.

How it works

The tooling has several components, including a daemon process named clamd. By using a Milter interface, email can be scanned within mail applications like Sendmail and Postfix. Optionally, the command-line utility clamdscan can talk to the daemon and request scanning of data.

ClamAV uses a few definition databases which contain the fingerprints of malware samples. Each utility responsible for scanning will work with this set of databases. The freshclam tool is a helper utility to update these databases.

Background information

The ClamAV project has a long history and is currently under development by Cisco. This is an indirect acquisition, as first the Snort project was acquired by Sourcefire. Then Cisco acquired Sourcefire in 2013, making it the new owner of the project.

Usage and audience

ClamAV is commonly used for malware analysis, malware detection, or malware scanning. Target users for this tool are general public, malware analysts, and system administrators.

Features

• Command line interface
• Customization and additions are possible
• Custom payloads

Tool review and remarks

The review and analysis of this project resulted in the following remarks for this security tool:

Strengths

• + Many maintainers
• + The source code of this software is available

History and highlights

Author and Maintainers

Maintainers

The ClamAV project is maintained by:

Installation

Supported operating systems

ClamAV is known to work on FreeBSD, Linux, macOS, and Microsoft Windows.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, it is possible to create your own signatures. The tools clambc and sigtool help with the creation and manipulation of custom signatures.

The clam daemon process is not strictly required. The clamscan tool can be used to scan a directory or file without using the daemon.

ClamAV alternatives

Similar tools to ClamAV:

LMD

Linux Malware Detect (LMD) is a malware scanner for systems running Linux. The open source software project is released with the GPLv2 license.

chkrootkit

chkrootkit is a malware scanner to locally check for signs of a rootkit. It is written in shell script and runs on the host system itself.

Rootkit Hunter

Security tool to search for traces of rootkits, backdoors, and other malicious components on systems running Linux and other flavors of Unix

This tool page was updated at . Found an improvement? Help the community by submitting an update.

Related tool information

ClamAV training guides

This tool is also part of the Linux Security Expert training program.

Categories

This tool is categorized as a Linux malware detection tool, Linux malware scanner, and Linux rootkit scanner.

ClamXav is a free virus checker for Mac OS X. It uses the tried, tested and very popular ClamAV open source antivirus engine as a back end.

Company Size

• S
• M
• L

• Access Control Management
• Advanced Threat Protection
• Anti-Malware
• Anti-Spam
• Anti-Virus
• Audit, Analysis and Compliance
• Breach Detection
• Content Filtering
• Data Destruction
• Data Loss Prevention
• Data Recovery
• Database Activity Monitoring
• Device Control

Clamxav For Mac

• Digital rights management (DRM)
• Email Encryption
• End-user awareness and training
• Endpoint Detection and Response
• Endpoint Protection Platform
• File Access Auditing
• File Encryption
• Identity Management
• Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDS/IPS)
• Mobile Forensics
• Network Access Control
• Network Security, Firewall and Packet Analyzers
• Password Management

Is Clamxav Legit

• Patch Management
• Penetration Testing
• Physical Security
• Proximity Readers
• Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
• SIEM, Log Management
• Single Sign-on
• Threat Protection
• Unified Threat Management (UTM)
• User Monitoring
• Virtual Private Network (VPN)
• Vulnerability Scanners
• eDiscovery