Test your Antivirus Yourself !!

[bonishah88]

Guys here is something neat.....maybe you know of it but still....

European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research(EICAR) is an european expert group for IT security. To check whether your antivirus has been installed and configured correctly, it has developed this small test.

QUOTE :
The Eicar Standard AntiVirus Test File is a combined effort by antivirus vendors throughout the world and EICAR organisation to come up with one standard by which customers can verify their antivirus installations.

Here are the steps :

1. To test your installation, copy the following line into its own file and name
it EICAR.COM.

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

2. When done, the resulting file will have either 68 or 70 bytes.

3.Scan this file with your anti-virus.
NOTE : It is very important to know that THIS IS NOT A VIRUS.

4. If your Anti-Virus is configured correctly it will report finding EICAR Test- NOT virus!!.

and you can rest assured that your antivirus is configured properly. Very useful when you have done a fresh installation and want to check whether it configured properly.

P.S. Please delete the file when installation testing is completed so that unsuspecting users are not unnecessarily alarmed.

Source : Avast

[YuMeng]

Actually this is quite old, but thanks for giving this information for the newb that doesn't know this

[Amature Programmer]

I was aware of this didnt find out long ago but thanks for the info.

[hellnoire]

You can download Eicar off the official site, where they double zip it and change it's file extension.

However, every AV of today can detect Eicar... I remember when Symantec tried pulling a fast one and saying it wasn't important to detect test viruses... seems like a certain company did a flip flop on that stance, now didn't it?

[kavinraja]

A known info. But still it would be useful for those who are unaware of it.
Thanks for info bonishah.

[bivas600]

this code is very old and really not helpful but nice effort

[bonishah88]

@ hellnoire : 'I remember when Symantec tried pulling a fast one and saying it wasn't important to detect test viruses... seems like a certain company did a flip flop on that stance, now didn't it?'

I did not get what you are referring to.

[noaccount]

every AV of today can detect Eicar...

eicar is now available on several formats, depending on your/av settings, on-acess scanner may/may not detect eicar 'virus'. more on
http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm

[hideipuser]

Useful info. Thanks.

[hellnoire]

@ hellnoire : 'I remember when Symantec tried pulling a fast one and saying it wasn't important to detect test viruses... seems like a certain company did a flip flop on that stance, now didn't it?'

I did not get what you are referring to.

I'm referring to the fact that Symantec/Norton used to ignore Eicar, saying pretty much that it would be below them to detect it. Now it does detect them... only after I've told a lot of customers I serve not to use Norton due to the fact it couldn't detect Eicar!