Virus Test

[HARLEY]

Cool Exercise
As an exercise, try this. Create a text file with notepad or similar and type the line of garbage text below exactly as it appears. Save and then run your virus scanner over it. Does it work? If not, get a new virus scanner. This is the EICAR test virus. It is quite harmless yet is a good test to see if your AV software is up to scratch. You may need to rename your .txt file to a .com, .exe or .bat extension for your scanner to grab it.

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

[Carol M]

I saved as a text file in Notepad & as I went to save to Desktop - virus alert popped up. Using Norton.:D

[JohnF]

Thanks Harley, it works :D

[migander]

Originally posted by Carol M
I saved as a text file in Notepad & as I went to save to Desktop - virus alert popped up. Using Norton.:D

Same with me.

[HARLEY]

A more complete test would be to rename it each time to a different extension and see what the results are!

[Carol M]

I did that with several extensions - all get caught.:D
I know my name is in the attachment but I don't have a problem with that, just in case someone thinks I wasn't aware of it.:eek:

[Numb]

Nortons nailed it before it would even save it in both word and notepad. :)

[Hochie]

got same result as you did numbnutz...am using Panda here...

[Gary Wilson]

I had to scan withAVG before it was found.

[Dizzy313]

Using Norton it was grabbed before it could be saved.

I'm wondering if anyone here is using Avast and how it does with this test.....anyone?

>> I had to scan withAVG before it was found. <<

It didn't stop it as you were saving it?

Dizzy

[Crockett]

Same here...couldn't save it. :D
I did the on line EICAR test before and thought it was pretty cool.

[Karen 2413]

Norton grabbed mine too.

[Denine Louise]

hummm I copy, pasted it in notepad. It saved it in my documents. I have AVG. was I supposed to put something else in there? Now I have to go and delete it from my documents?

Edit... I went to my documents, clicked on it and clicked run with scan. It picked it up. I thought a virus scan automatically picked up a virus when you had one?

[Dizzy313]

>> Edit... I went to my documents, clicked on it and clicked run with scan. It picked it up. I thought a virus scan automatically picked up a virus when you had one? <<

Norton does. None of us Norton users could even get the file saved because our AV was picking it up before we could.

Just be cautious, scan everything before you install it and run online virus scans periodically to make sure all is well.

I'm still wondering how Avast would do with this. I have it downloaded and ready to go onto another computer, I just haven't had the time to install it or play with it any.

Dizzy

[Crockett]

OK, we'll wait for your command, Agent Dizzy! :D

[Dizzy313]

That's 007Dizzy to you.

[Dizzy313]

.............................................or Dizzy007. It sounds better, I think....I dunno.

Which do you prefer?

[Crockett]

Dizzy 007313 :D

[Dizzy313]

Put it on this (attachment) for me? :D

You know you love me!!!!

[Crockett]

Here's one for you. :D it's not perfect

[Crockett]

or this one with a slightly different color...I couldn't match the roses

[Dizzy313]

Originally posted by Crockett
Here's one for you. it's not perfect Thank you very much, Snookums. ;) :D

Bytheway, I'm not perfect either. :D

[BookLady]

"Excuse me" says a little voice in the corner, "You people seem to be proud that your antivirus is giving you false positive reports and not allowing you to save an innocous line that you typed. I suppose you will tell me that it is better to get a FALSE positive than to miss a possible positive. "

Gary Email it to yourself and see if AVG catches it as incoming. AVG is set up to monitor email but you have to tell it to scan anything else.

[Porlene]

I have Nortons, and it allowed me to save it with both Word and Notepad :(

I have just run antivirus right through and it didn't find them either.

[BookLady]

Porlene there is another thread on this over in the Q&A and they say it is possible that it won't find it since it really isn't a virus just a test. So what's a few more gray hairs?

[Porlene]

Booklady...thank you for that..not so worried now.:)

[HARLEY]

Originally posted by Porlene
Booklady...thank you for that..not so worried now.:)
---------------------------------------------------

It's not a false positive..........it's an actual virus string,so your norton should've picked it up!

Is it updated ,did you save it properly?

I would do more tests!

http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm

[Porlene]

Harley I mustn't have been saving it properly, because as soon as clicked on any of the links in that link, Norton clicked in. Not very good at this am I.

[BookLady]

OK Harley "False positive" is a bit strong. I really did expected more reaction. Thanks for the link I will definitely check it out. A trojan got through and wreaked havoc on ths machine so I am paranoid and about had heart failure when I thought AVG and SwatIt, etc might not be catching things.

The information which eased my mind somewhat was in this thread down toward the end Antivirus (http://www.worldstart.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=27346)