Unix, Xenix and ODT General FAQ

This article is from a FAQ concerning SCO operating systems. While some of the information may be applicable to any OS, or any Unix or Linux OS, it may be specific to SCO Xenix, Open There is lots of Linux, Mac OS X and general Unix info elsewhere on this site: Search this site is the best way to find anything.

How can I test virus scanning software?

By using the "EICAR STANDARD ANTIVIRUS TEST" file. It's actually a legitimate MSDOS program, but it's all text, so you can just type it into a text file or an email. It's all ASCII, so it needs no encoding:

 
  X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*   
 

It's not really a virus - it won't hurt your system - but any anti-virus program should catch and report it.

Unfortunately, some will remove it too, which can cause problems for programs that use an EICAR file to be sure their built-in scanning is working correctly. If you have an app that needs an EICAR file, be sure to exclude at least the directory where it lives from any other virus scanning.

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