A New Antivirus From Bitdefender

[Richard-BKK]

Okay we all know that it is unlikely that you will every get a computer virus on a Linux box, but still, some of us exchange files with "weaker" MS Windows users which are as it seems very likely to get infected.

For that reason some of us (Linux users) are using antivirus software packages. With the new package from BitDefender, which is called 'BitDefender Antivirus Scanner for Unices' you just got a new reason to install it, the reason is that it looks pretty good. And it is without cost, and installs very easy...

You can download the package from here BitDefender. You need to apply for the free license and download the package.

To install the deb package you just select the "BitDefender-Antivirus-Scanner-7.6-4.linux-gcc4x.i586.deb.run" and click on it twice, a popup shows and you selected "run". Then just follow the instruction on the screen, which is first a few clicks to read the license agreement...

After installation is complete you find the package in Applications->System Tools

And tell me doesn't look cool?

[sensei]

I was wondering if this will just run when I want to scan a file or will this program run in the background when I boot into Linux?

[Richard-BKK]

He Sensei,

It runs as a file scanner, it is possible to run it in the back-ground, but then what is the use of that. It is very unlikely that a Linux computer actual picks up a virus which will run without authorization...

Linux is not MS Windows, therefore idea's about structural security problems like MS-Windows is struggling with are not present in Linux.

[Ben10]

He Sensei,

It runs as a file scanner, it is possible to run it in the back-ground, but then what is the use of that. It is very unlikely that a Linux computer actual picks up a virus which will run without authorization...

Linux is not MS Windows, therefore idea's about structural security problems like MS-Windows is struggling with are not present in Linux.

I agree with your comments on Linux security in your posts Richard.

Most Linux users who have a need for anti-virus software will use Clam AV an open source (GPL) product available in the repositories, there is also a GUI front end 'Clam TK'.

So i'm not sure why Bit Defender feels they have a market for this product?

Normal uses of Clam AV are for server/gateway machines scanning uploads and emails etc.

[Richard-BKK]

He Ben10,

I have no idea if BitDefender or Clam AV is better, but surely I need to say that 'BitDefender Antivirus Scanner for Unices' is the better looking application..

[joncl]

He Ben10,

I have no idea if BitDefender or Clam AV is better, but surely I need to say that 'BitDefender Antivirus Scanner for Unices' is the better looking application..

I use avg here - which runs as a service or in the foreground in a KDE GUI (I am sure there is a gnome gui but have not tried it)

[Richard-BKK]

Yep, I can run many 'services' in the background, but face it we only do this to "help" our weaker MS Windows brothers, in this, I refuse to commit processor power and resources to something that is not directly my problem.

Sure when I get a email with something like an attachment I scan it first before I forward it. But that is just me being "nice".

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

And how to do this under Ubuntu..? I went through the hassle of getting this (you should mention that one needs to enter his e-mail address no less than three time and that "phone" is a mandatory field as well!) and now, clicking the file, all i get is "archive type not supported". Great, somehow reminds me of fake videos from torrent sites. The same happens with the "rpm.run" file.

Oh, trying via terminal as the same effect - "permission denied".

I call this BS.

Best regards.....

Thanh

EDIT got it going.

The web site with the solution had an "Access Forbidden" as well (!!) but Google's cache worked on this one, so here goes - this appears to be a common issue with Ubuntu!

Follow these steps:

1. open a terminal (gnome-terminal, konsole, xterm etc.)

2. cd /path/to/directory/where/you/downloaded/the/kit

3. chmod 755 BitDefender-Antivirus-Scanner-7.6-4.linux-gcc4x.i586.deb.run

This puts the execution flag on the .run kit.

4. sudo ./BitDefender-Antivirus-Scanner-7.6-4.linux-gcc4x.i586.deb.run

5. type accept when prompted

6. when prompted, choose "Y" to install the bitdefender-scanner-gui

package (which provides the GUI scanner)

This should under no circumstance fail. If something happens though,

check if the bitdefende-scanner package is partly installed.

1. dpkg -l | grep bitdefender-scanner

If something, anything, shows up for the command above, do the following:

2. sudo dpkg --purge bitdefender-scanner

3. sudo rm -fr /opt/BitDefender-scanner

Now, here's the fail-proof thing that you can do:

1. ./BitDefender-Antivirus-Scanner-7.6-4.linux-gcc4x.i586.deb.run --keep

2. when prompted to accept the license, type anything *except*

"accept" and hit enter

3. the installation process is halted and the contents of the .run kit

will be available in a directory called

BitDefender-Antivirus-Scanner-7.6-4.linux-gcc4x.i586.deb.run.SFX

4. cd BitDefender-Antivirus-Scanner-7.6-4.linux-gcc4x.i586.deb.run.SFX

5. sudo dpkg -i bitdefender-scanner_7.6-4_i386.deb

6. sudo dpkg -i bitdefender-scanner-gui_1.0-4_i386.deb

7. now in order to use either the command line scanner, called bdscan,

either the GUI scanner, called bdgui, you need to accept the license:

type either bdscan or bdgui, accept the license and you're good to go.

You will find the BitDefender Antimalware Scanner link in the system's menu.

You can even have BitDefender integrated with your file manager (such

that it will add an entry in the right-click menu, i.e. when you

right-click on a file/directory you can get a "Scan with BitDefender"

link. For this, check the tarballs in

/opt/BitDefender-scanner/share/integration.

HTH.

Regards...

Thanh

Edited May 3, 2009 by Thanh-BKK

[Richard-BKK]

Hello Thanh,

Do you have it now working?

It is sometimes possible that download programs like Downthemall or others change the rights on the downloaded file, normally this is fixed by opening a terminal window and type chmod a+x filename.bin (in this case chmod a+x BitDefender-Antivirus-Scanner-7.6-4.linux-gcc4x.i586.deb.run)

After this you should be able to just start the installation by clicking on the file...

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

Yeah it is working after i followed the instructions i posted here. And, as opposed to ClamAV, this one does NOT delay the boot process My Ubuntu boots in 30 seconds again. And the updating works so much better with this one.... on ClamAV there was something broken, it could only update by running freshclam via terminal (and sudo!).

Hasn't found a virus yet... i guess i have none

Best regards....

Thanh

[Richard-BKK]

I run this BitDefender from day one, never found anything. After some time I started to get worried if it was working... so I went on a search on the Internet.... And yes it works.

Thanh good point it indeed doesn't slows down the bootup, but then by default it not runs in the background (but then why would it, if I get a MS Windows related file I scan it manual....)

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

Well i can give it a heads-up - i have just deliberately downloaded a virus (sub7 trojan) and let BitDefender loose on my "Downloads" folder - and it found it (in fact found two individual trojans in that zip file). It also scans .iso files! So i guess even if a virus was hidden in a DVD image this would find it..?

Looks really good for me.

Kind regards.....

Thanh

[Richard-BKK]

He Thanh,

A .iso file is just a archive format for Linux, and BitDefender is using all archive (compress file formats) options to look inside archive files.

But to be honest, I like the user interface the most... It finally looks that Linux software designers are going more for the looks

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

Yeah i liked that, too... however the looks of a software that is to do some sort of "work" task is not too important for me.... programs which are involved in some screen activity (i.e. specially web browsers or media players) should look nice as one is looking at them all the time... but an anti-virus which is normally (for me at least) minimized to do it's job in the background.... still it's nice to see that it looks good, an i very much appreciate the BIG "update" button which does actually work ClamAV was a pain in the behind there.....

Kind regards....

Thanh

[jackdanielsesq]

Why would you want to even think of adding unnecessary overhead to ya operating system?

BR>Jack

PS We left that all behind when we dumping M$

[Richard-BKK]

He Jack,

BitDefender doesn't run in the background, nor is it active, you need to start it to use it...

[Thanh-BKK]

Hello.

I have a new question about this software. Recently (beginning of last week) i received an e-mail in Thai from BitDefender, or rather their Thai branch. The only bits in the e-mail that were in English were "trial" and "license" so i replied to that e-mail asking for an English version.

This was duly received the next day, informing me that the program i am using (BitDefender Antivirus Scanner For Unices) was actually a "trial version" and if i was interested in purchasing a full license.

Now, interested i am but it would depend on a few things, so i sent them another reply asking about the differences between my "trial" version (which nowhere mentions it is a trial version!) and a fully licensed one as well as the price for the full license and accepted payment methods, mentioning right there that i do not have any credit card. It being a Thai company (or at least representation, located in Bangkok) they should accept transfers from a Thai bank account, which i have.

I have never received a reply to that e-mail.

Now i would like to know if anyone else here has received the same e-mail and/or has bought the full license? If so, how much does it cost and what are the benefits?

Also just today i have found out that Avast! also have a Linux-version. Is anyone using that? I have used it on Vista before (and still on my XP station at the office as well as pretty much all Windows-powered computers i have built for others) and quite like it.

Kind regards.....

Thanh

[jackdanielsesq]

Anytime anybody needs a whole bunch of details prior-to, then post-install, it has got to be a scam/hoax/marketing ploy.

I believe the part that it was a good-looking interface about sums it up.

Why not install something really useless next time, especially as it requires a manual start.

This is simply more of the same 'useless M$ upgrade syndrome'

One can only wonder who will be next to market another useless Linux AV suite?!

BR>Jack

[Thanh-BKK]

Hmm....

But it DOES make sense to have an AV software even on a system that can't be infected directly (or at least not as easy - there ARE Linux viruses, too!) because if i receive some software or *some data* and want to pass it on, there may be something nasty inside which i will not know of but which screws up my friend's computer.... running a quick scan on such files/packages takes mere seconds and makes sure i won't ruin a friendship by passing infected material.

And it not running permanently makes sense, too... as the vast, vast majority of viruses is targeted at Windows and won't even be executable on a Linux system (even under Wine, and even IF they are they won't be able to do much harm)........ however i also have two flavours of Windows installed in virtual machines on which i test-drive software... and neither of them has an anti-virus by themselves (one is Windows 95, i tried Avast on it but it screwed up the system) so before throwing some .exe at them i find it convenient to run BitDefender over it to check if it is clean, as mentioned it takes mere seconds to do so.

Best regards.....

Thanh

[higgy88]

Thanh,

I've been using Bitdefender for Unices on my Ubuntu machine for a good couple of months now. Registered, gave them my email address, got my product key, and have been good to go ever since. Haven't gotten any email from them since. Their website says It is a free for home product, so I would think you would only need to buy a license if you use it for business purposes. I am assuming you are just using it on your home computer. I would either just ignore any mail that says they want money, or maybe I would even forward that email you got directly to a contact address on their web site and see what they say about it.

Higgy

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi.

Well here are the e-mail i received:

เรียน ผู้ใช้งาน

รบกวนสอบถามเกี่ยวกับ การใช้งานเกี่ยวกับโปรแกรม BitDefender Antivirus Scanner for Unices ที่ท่านได้ DOWNLOAD โปรแกรมดังกล่าว

มาทดลองใช้งานอยากทราบว่ามีปัญหาในการใช้งานหรือมีข้อสงสัยอะไรเพิ่มเติมหรือไม่ และตอนนี้มีโครงการที่จะซื้อ license มาใช้งานบ้างหรือไม่

ถ้าท่านสนใจหรือ ต้องการรายละเอียดเพิ่มเติม สามารถส่ง e-mail หรือ ติดต่อสอบถามข้อมูลได้จากบริษัทฯนะค่ะ

จึงเรียนมาเพื่อทราบ

วลัยทิพย์ ทองเล็ก

Regards,

(censored)

cid:[email protected]

Na-Nakorn Bldg., 7th Fl., 99/349

Chaengwatthana Rd., Thoongsonghong

Laksi, Bangkok 10210

Tel: (66) 2982-3355

Fax: (66) 2982-2455

Website: www.bitdefenderthailand.com

e-mail: (censored)@bitdefenderthailand.com

and the English one, from the same person:

Dear Sir , Madam.

First and foremost, we thank you for download our demo product

"BitDefender Antivirus Scanner for Unices",

that are there got any problem or any questions. And are you and plan to buy

our full licence or not.

If you're interested in our products or additional details can contact us

via e-mail.

(censored)

(censored) = name of the person that contacted me. Well i did e-mail them for "additional details" but never got a reply as mentioned. Also on the Thai website is no mention of the "Unices" version, at least i could not find it there.

Best regards.....

Thanh

[higgy88]

Interesting, I also couldn't get to their linux version from their web site, so I just did a google search for bitdefender for unices and got it.

http://www.bitdefender.com/PRODUCT-80-en--...for-Unices.html

They do have an evaluation version on the right column, maybe you installed that one?

Here is a screen shot of my version and it definitely shows I have the free one. What does yours show?

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi.

No i got that same version that you got, my screenshot looks identical only i have around 310 days left (now still at work so can't check, but i did check the day i got that e-mail).

On the site you linked regardless if you click on "Download" or on "Evaluation" you get the exact same software (it opens the same page where you have to enter all your details etc), however i did request (and get) the "free license" as well.

(edit) i actually still have their download link and license information e-mails in my G-Mail, here they are:

This is your Personal License for BitDefender Antivirus Scanner for Unices. It is free of charge and it only allows you to use the product for personal purposes, with no commercial implications whatsoever, under the terms of the EULA.

Under the Personal License, you may use BitDefender Antivirus Scanner for Unices to scan your personal laptop or desktop computer, but YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO USE THE PRODUCT IN A BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT SUCH AS ON AN OFFICE COMPUTER OR A COMPANY SERVER.

Your Personal License key:

(my_license_key_here)

Thank you for using BitDefender!

Best regards,

The BitDefender Team

and the second (!) one with the download information:

Dear Thanh Thai,

Thank you for the interest you have shown in BitDefender products. You are about to experience the protection that only the best security technologies can offer.

While we are confident that the installation and trial process will go smoothly, please feel free to drop an e-mail to [email protected] if you should encounter any difficulties.

To complete the download trial version process, please click here

Thank you,

BitDefender Team

And yes, upon reading that now, it really appears to be a "trial" version. It downloads when the "here" is clicked from within the e-mail.

The only information i found about another type of license is one for commercial or business use, at 250 USD. I am only using it on one single personal computer so i guess i won't be needing that.

Best regards.....

Thanh

Edited July 31, 2009 by Thanh-BKK