0×0d Is it a virus or not?
Most of the time any virus entering your machine will be detected by antivirus software. But these softwares are programmed to protect your PC from known viruses only. So if you are being attacked by any new virus for which your antivirus softwares does not have signature then you are at the mercy of virus coder…!
Some times a virus which is detected by one antivirus software goes undetected by another software especially when the virus is in the initial stages. Also some times you may not have antivirus on your machine and wants to know if the suspicious program is virus or not.
In such cases you can submit any such program to VirusTotal.com which provides free online virus scanning facility. VirusTotal has got latest signatures from all antivirus vendors on the earth and provides latest information about virus infection status. You can not only detect any infection but also find out name of the virus as named by different vendors.
If the VirusTotal does not show any infection, then you can submit the binary file to different antivirus vendors and get the details of infection caused by the program.
Here are some of the online submission links from top antivirus vendors.
| Company | Virus Submission Link |
|---|---|
| Symantec | http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/submit.html |
| McAfee | http://vil.nai.com/vil/submit-sample.aspx |
| F-Secure | http://support.f-secure.com/enu/home/virusproblem/sample/index_sample.shtml |
| CalmAV | http://cgi.clamav.net/sendvirus.cgi |
Alternative way is to directly email the sample program to these antivirus vendors. You can find the complete mailing list here.
Now you know what to do if you find any suspicious virus hanging around your PC…!
- Nagareshwar
Thanks for the heads up.