Installing antivirus software in a linux environment

In this module, we will go through how you can install antivirus software in a Linux environment. Often, it is thought that a Linux environment does not need antivirus because most malware is designed to target Windows environments, and this is mostly true. However, there are many situations where it is useful to use antivirus on a Linux server as well. For example, if you have a critical system that must operate without issues, antivirus software can be a good idea to ensure that no malicious software infects it. And if something does manage to get in, it can be quickly caught and dealt with.

Start the laboratory below and follow the steps. In this task, installations and other actions are performed on the local kali machine, not on the target server.

Installation

First, let's go through how to install antivirus software and then practice using it. Then, let's write a simple script to monitor desired folders.

ClamAV installation and updating the virus database

To install the ClamAV software, you can execute the commands below.

1apt-get install clamav clamav-daemon
2freshclam

The command freshclam downloads the latest virus databases, which allows ClamAV to distinguish malware from regular programs. Typically, this command would be set to run automatically, perhaps once a day, to ensure that the latest virus signatures are always available.