On Wed, 2007-06-20 at 17:49 +0100, Jenny Hopkins wrote:
I'm really nervous in case it isn't actually working anymore though - shame I can't send myself a virus to check :-) I don't know why we use Mailscanner - haven't really sussed what it is,, although it is on my list somewhere of ToFindOuts.
http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm
Is your friend, it is a tiny file that is registered by most (if not all) anti virus scanners as a virus but poses no actual threat.
It doesn't test the effectiveness of your scanners detection patterns, but it does at least prove that the scanner is working.
I also believe that clamav has it's own similar test file which is not necessarily detected by other scanners (handy when you are trying to download eicar through a filtering proxy)