iAntivirus has not found anything in the 6 months I have had it and am wondering now if it is even good. Thanks.
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How good is iAntivirus
- Thread starter celticpride678
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Hasn't found anything because there are no viruses on the Mac
Most people do not run an AV software on the Mac for that reason
But, that will open up the debate again... so carry on
Woof, Woof - Dawg
![pawprint.gif]()
Most people do not run an AV software on the Mac for that reason
But, that will open up the debate again... so carry on
Woof, Woof - Dawg
In my opinion "no"
You just need to practice safe computing
There are no viruses... but there are trojans
A trojan/malware will try to trick you into installing, but it will require you to use your administrative password
Your best defense is being informed about what you are doing
You can run ClamXav
It can keep you from passing a virus on to a Windows user if you share a lot of files
But there are no viruses for the Mac
That could change... but that is the current state
Woof, Woof - Dawg
No viruses for OS X. There are trojans, which can be protected against by common sense.
As far as Mac antivirus software goes, though, iAntiVirus is the best. It's got flaws, but it's the best.
As far as Mac antivirus software goes, though, iAntiVirus is the best. It's got flaws, but it's the best.
It's awesome, but it's more of an intimidation type software. It stares the virus's down, hence you have never found one in a scan.
I was going to install it on my new iMac, what sort of problems or faults does it have?
Um, you mean other than it's a drug dog in a kindergarten classroom? Is there really a point?
I found it lacking in features and preferences (very much so). ClamXAV has more options, but it could be more user-friendly as well. Both kind of lag the system making it hard to do other things. That always annoys me and for my laptop it can only run when I'm using it unless I leave it on over night to run. Not a fan of that. I mostly just have ClamXAV watch my Download folder for new arrivals to scan, which doesn't take much processing power away from my computing.
It automatically quarantines files, no option to just get it to alert you. It often seems to damaged quarantined files, for example, if they are applications or in disk images. This would be alright, if iAV didn't pick up about a dozen legitimate penetration testing applications as threats.
If you want to install it, make sure you go through the list of "threats" on PC Tools' site, and f you have any of the programs marked as "Hacktools", you store them in a folder and set iAV to exclude that folder.
Hasn't found anything because there are no viruses on the Mac
Most people do not run an AV software on the Mac for that reason
But, that will open up the debate again... so carry on
Woof, Woof - Dawg![pawprint.gif]()
The first time i ran the iAntivirus scan it found three "trojans" which i don't know if they were even a problem or not but it deleted them easily and it hasn't found anything yet. I was surprised when it found them because I didn't think macs could get viruses but I looked the ones up that it said I had and it found three of these type:
Trojan.OSX.RSPlug.F is a Trojan horse that modifies the Domain Name System (DNS) settings of the affected system.
I wasn't even sure what that meant but on the iAntivirus website it said it was serious. So I run iAntivirus from time to time just to make sure.
It has overloading CPU usage. When its doing a scan it always has over 50% cpu usage. So that's why I don't run it that much because it makes the computer run hot.
I attached a picture of the process it runs while its doing a scan and the cpu usage % is around 70%. It fluctuates between 50 and 70% usage the whole time its running a scan.
Attachments
There's a missing detail. You said it found a trojan, but then was surprised because Macs don't have viruses. Trojans and viruses are different things.
Also, Macs can get a virus file, but simply having that file on the Mac does not mean it's infected. The virus cannot run on mac so it can't execute its virus code. The code only runs on Windows so it's of no harm to Macs. Though, if by chance that file got transferred off your machine to a Windows machine (maybe email or moving an external HD) then that Windows machine would become infected.
Thanks for everyone's replies. Going to be keeping clear of iAntivirus. ClamXav will be fine for me I'm sure.
iAntiVirus = Mac only threats
ClamXAV = Windows only threats
I understand, I just don't believe there are enough Mac threats to make me want to use a Mac threat scanner.
And most Mac users agree with you
1. Stay away from downloading questionable files, they are the likely host for trojans
2. Pay attention when granting your Administrative Password to any request
That just about covers it
Woof, Woof - Dawg
How good is iAntivirus!
I found a AntiVirus app called "VirusBarrier Express". Is this any good and does it scan for virusses and Trojans?
Does it use alot of CPU memory ? (it does not run in background, but runs a scheduled scan)
Thanx for any replies in advance.
I found a AntiVirus app called "VirusBarrier Express". Is this any good and does it scan for virusses and Trojans?
Does it use alot of CPU memory ? (it does not run in background, but runs a scheduled scan)
Thanx for any replies in advance.
RSPlug and its variants are installed by tricking the user to manually install malicious video codecs.
I suggest you install Perian, Flip4Mac, and XiphQT.
These codecs will allow you to play almost virtually all of the video formats you will encounter so that you know that prompts to install another codec are most likely malicious.
ClamXav has definitions for all 4 of the relevant trojans for OSX as well as having definitions for Windows and Linux malware.
VirusBarrier Express is like ClamXav in that it doesn't have full on-access scanning and doesn't run as root.
Client side software that run as root lead to privilege escalation if exploited and that allows virus/worm install without user interaction (password authentication) so not running as root is safer. (EDIT: It is rare for client side software that receives remote input to run as root. AV software that runs as root is a rare example. The likelihood of exploitation of this type or exploitation of OSX in the wild in general is very low as indicated by incidence rates.)
The downside of VirusBarrier Express is that it is unable to be set to on-access scan specific folders such as ~/Downloads, ~/Library/Mail, ~/Library/Mail Downloads, ~/Library/Application Support/"name of online game" and etc to catch malware at its common entry points.
VirusBarrier Express only allows manual on-demand scanning while ClamXav allows on-access scanning of specific folders. It should be noted that Snow Leopard already has a utility that detects 3 of the 4 Trojans.
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You don't need antivirus apps to protect your Mac. To find out why, read this:
Mac Virus/Malware Info
You do realize you're responding to posts from over a year and a half ago, right?