Antivirus software is a computer program that detects and removes a computer virus, malware, or anything malicious which is harmful to your system. You probably have heard of or used various antivirus programs for Windows operating system.
Linux is used mostly on servers, IoTs, or desktops so preventing it from viruses and malware is very important. Any infection to your system can lead loss of sensitive information it can also corrupt your files completely.
Although Linux is fairly stable and secure, it is not completely immune to threats. So using a good antivirus program can prevent you from data losses or Ransome. There are both free and paid antivirus software
There are both free and paid antivirus programs available for the Linux platform but today in this article, I will discuss the list of 7 free antivirus software for the Linux operating system.
ClamAV
ClamAV is a free and open-source antivirus program that can detect and remove viruses and malware. It is mainly used on mail servers for scanning email viruses.
Originally it was developed for Unix but is now available for installation on different platforms including Linux, Windows, macOS, etc.
Features of ClamAV
The key features of ClamAV are –
- Free and opensource
- Cross-platform
- Easy to use
- Portable
- It is lightweight and fast
- It can scan numerous file formats and mail gateways
- Provides virus database update
- POSIX compliant
Sophos
Sophos is free antivirus software that can detect and remove viruses, trojans, and malware from your Linux system. It can also be used on other platforms including Windows and macOS.
You can use it in the terminal for scanning and removing any threat from your system.
Features of Sophos
The key features of Sophos are –
- Easy to install and use
- Effective and secure
- It is lightweight with good performance
- It supports on-demand, scheduled, or on-access scanning
- Virus database updates
- It can be configured for scanning for local and network drives
- Available for different platform
Comodo Antivirus
Comodo is a free and powerful antivirus program that is part of Comodo Internet Security(CIS). It offers real-time protection with on-demand scanning and anti-spam support. You can also configure it to provide server-side protection.
Features of Comodo antivirus
The key features of Comodo antivirus –
- Easy to install and use
- Real-time protection
- Custom scanning profiles
- Regular and automatic updates
- Offers a mail filter having compatibility with Postfix, Qmail, Sendmail, etc.
Rootkit Hunter
Rootkit Hunter(rkhunter) is a lightweight computer antivirus program that detects and fixes rootkits, backdoors, and other possible local exploits. It comes preinstalled on distributions like Kali Linux, Fedora, etc.
It works by comparing SHA-1 hashes of important files with good online databases. It scans hidden files, wrong permissions set on binaries, and suspicious strings in the kernel.
Features of Rootkit Hunter
The key features of Rootkit Hunter are –
- Free and opensource
- Lightweight and fast
- Work from terminal
- It uses SHA-1 hash comparison to detect malicious entries
- Portable and compatible with most UNIX-based systems
F-PROT Antivirus
F-Prot is a free antivirus for Linux by FRISK Software International. It can scan viruses, ransomware, malware, and other computer threats. It is a cross-platform application that can be installed on different platforms including Microsoft Windows, Linux, Solaris, and IBM eServers.
Features of F-Prot antivirus
The key features of F-Prot antivirus are –
- Easy to set up and use
- Available for both 32 and 64-bit architecture
- You can use GUI or command-line interface
- Lightweight and Portable
- Can perform scheduled scanning
- You can scan hard drives, CD-ROMS, diskettes, network drives, etc
- It can scan for boot sector viruses, macro viruses, and malware
Firetools
Firetools is a Qt frontend for firejail which is a SUID security sandbox program that reduces the risk of security breaches by restricting the running environment of the untrusted applications using Linux namespace and seccomp-bpf.
Firetools prevent malicious scripts from harming the system. It allows users to run scripts and software in an isolated environment which verifies whether it is safe or not. It can be used with another antivirus program to strengthen the security of a system.
Features of Firetools
The key features of Firetools are –
- Free and opensource
- Uses Linux namespace
- Sandbox auditing
- Easy to use GUI
- Custom security profiles
- Provides statistics of the sandboxed application
- Supports universal packaging format AppImage natively
Chkrootkit
Chkrootkit (or check rootkit) is a free and open-source tool lightweight antivirus program that is used especially to detect and remove rootkits from a Linux system. You can use it in the command line or GUI.
Features of Chkrootkit
The key features of Chkrootkit are –
- Free and opensource
- Available for different Linux distributions
- Easy to use and fast
- Lightweight and portable
- You can burn it to USB or CD
- It can detect almost all rootkits
- Efficiently detects altered wtmp and lastlog files to alert administrators about intrusions
Conclusion
So here we have discussed only a few free antivirus programs there are so many others that are available for the Linux platform many of them are paid also.
Now if you have a query or feedback then write us in the comments below.