Testing your Anti-Virus

After installing an Antivirus, you may logically wonder, how do I know if it’s working ? The answer is a test virus. The EICAR Standard AntiVirus Test File is a combined effort by anti-virus vendors throughout the world to implement one standard by which customers can verify their anti-virus installations.

To test your installation, copy the following line into its own file, then save the file with the name EICAR.COM. More detailed instructions are found below.

_X5O!P%@AP[4PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*_

The file size will be 68 or 70 bytes.
To Download this test file Click Here
Change its extension from txt to com.

If VirusScan is running and configured correctly, when you try to save the file, VirusScan will detect the virus. If VirusScan is not running, start it and scan the directory that contains EICAR.COM. When your software scans this file, it will report finding the EICAR test file. The antivirus industry, through the European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research, has adopted this standard to facilitate this need.

Note that this file is NOT A VIRUS. Delete the file when you have finished testing your installation to avoid alarming unsuspecting users.

NOTES – The file is simply a text file of either 68 or 70 bytes that is a legitimate executable file called a COM file that can run by Microsoft operating systems and some work-alikes, including OS/2. When executed, will print “EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!” and stop. The test string was specifically engineered to consist of ASCII human-readable characters, easily created using a standard computer keyboard. It makes use of self-modifying code to work around technical issues that this constraint makes on the execution of the test string.