Test Your Anti-virus Program
Posted by Holmez
on 19 Feb 2010. Filed under Computers & Technology.
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This is a good question and it is wise to familiarize yourself with how your anti-virus software behaves when it detects a virus, before it really happens. One quick way to do this is to use the EICAR Anti-Virus Test File. This is a test file that will cause no damage to your system and still allow you to test if anti-virus tool is awake.
Here are some steps:
1. Open a text editor (e.g. Notepad)
2. Enter the following text in it:
X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*
3. Save the file as EICAR.COM on your desktop.
4. Open DOS and try to execute this .COM file (or simply double-click the file on Desktop)
If your anti-virus software is working properly, it will warn you that a virus has been detected when you attempt to run the .COM file.
To be double-sure, zip this file, and then try double-clicking on the ZIP file to see if your AV tool recognized viruses inside ZIP files. You can also send this file to yourself as an attachment, just to verify if your AV tool has command of email cleanliness.
If you change the test virus file
X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*
to a slightly dif. copy of it self McAfee for example doesn’t see it…
X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$PC-Destroyer-ANTI-VIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*
How many other virus engines fail if you do this?
ya, but it will cause some damage to the antivirus
we just test it 
Out of 43 Virus Engines at VirusTotal online scan these are the only four that detected that modified the EICAR test virus…. Something to think about…
*CAT-QuickHeal
*Commtouch
*F-Prot
*K7AntiVirus
*Panda
hmmm..
My bitdefender detected it very fast.
may be the engine at that ” VirusTotal online scan ” are not updated.