Mailing List Archive

Thank you for your suggestion.

Unfortunately right now, development and personnel time is limited. The version that we create for ClamAV, while you have to compile it yourself, works on MacOS. We do not have the personnel or resources to do a GUI front end for ClamAV for MacOS either. We have thought and discussed it internally and the passion is there. However, we just don’t have the time nor the man power to do this right now.

--
Joel Esler
Manager, Communities Division
Cisco Talos Intelligence Group
http://www.talosintelligence.com | https://www.snort.org

> On Jan 1, 2021, at 7:41 AM, Finn isme <fishintheseabuttheyaintme@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> hello,
>
> I am an ordinary user of macOS who has dabbled with Linux in the past. I wonder if your organization would be willing to make ClamAV and a ClamAV frontend available on the macOS store.
>
> For awhile now, Apple has a no-fee policy for non-profits as shown here:
> https://developer.apple.com/support/membership-fee-waiver/
>
> I would prefer to have some antivirus solution on macOS, however all those available on the Apple App Store seem to have negative reviews concerning how they disrupted the macOS system.
>
> Could you not apply for that with Apple so we could have ClamAV available? Thanks
>
> postscript - I'm not sure if I will be able to read your replies and I'm emailing from a Comcast email account.
>
> Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
> _______________________________________________
>
> clamav-devel mailing list
> clamav-devel@lists.clamav.net
> https://lists.clamav.net/mailman/listinfo/clamav-devel
>
> Please submit your patches to our Github: https://github.com/Cisco-Talos/clamav-devel/pulls
>
> Help us build a comprehensive ClamAV guide:
> https://github.com/vrtadmin/clamav-faq
>
> http://www.clamav.net/contact.html#ml

_______________________________________________

clamav-devel mailing list
clamav-devel@lists.clamav.net
https://lists.clamav.net/mailman/listinfo/clamav-devel

Please submit your patches to our Github: https://github.com/Cisco-Talos/clamav-devel/pulls

Help us build a comprehensive ClamAV guide:
https://github.com/vrtadmin/clamav-faq

http://www.clamav.net/contact.html#ml

Hi there,

On Sat, 2 Jan 2021, Finn isme wrote:

> I am an ordinary user of macOS who has dabbled with Linux in the
> past. I wonder if your organization would be willing to make ClamAV
> and a ClamAV frontend available on the macOS store. For awhile now,
> Apple has a no-fee policy for non-profits as shown here:
> https://developer.apple.com/support/membership-fee-waiver/

I'm not sure that Cisco, with just shy of 76,000 employees and a net
annual income of over ten billion dollars, qualifies as a 'non-profit':

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisco_Systems

> I would prefer to have some antivirus solution on macOS, however all
> those available on the Apple App Store seem to have negative reviews
> concerning how they disrupted the macOS system.

As Joel says, you can indeed install ClamAV on a Mac. If you search
the list archives you will find many posts from Mac users. Some are
very recent. It's not perfectly straightforward to install, but then
security isn't perfectly straightforward. If you are unable to follow
the installation instructions at

https://www.clamav.net/documents/installation-on-macos-mac-os-x

then you can always ask for help on the ClamAV users list (not on this
list, which as you know is for development).

Do not, however, assume that if you install ClamAV then you are as if
by magic somehow "protected". That's a long way from being the case.
Your best protections are to keep on top of security updates, (both
the Mac system and any installed software), to be sensible about what
software you install on your computer, about what you browse, and how
you deal with email. Note that many software offerings which claim to
offer 'protection' of some kind are simply malicious software, thinly
disguised as something that you would want on your computer. Perhaps
even most of them. I would never install an 'app' from any store, on
anything, no matter what its promoters promised to provide. The first
thing I did when I got a smartphone was remove all the apps that came
with it, including the browser. It now has exactly two apps on it. I
built them myself. It's never been compromised, nor has anything on
our network.

Take great care with email. At the moment I'm getting a more than
thousand malicious messages per month from 'protection.outlook.com' -
Microsoft's own email service. The messages mostly come from servers
in Austria, Eire, Finland, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and the USA but
I do see a few from elsewhere. Google's email service used to lead my
league table of cr@p email suppliers, now they're second to Microsoft.

If you feel it's essential to accept some level of risk, you could for
example intall a virtual machine package on the Mac, and use a browser
running on the VM instead of the one running native on your Mac. Even
a VM doesn't totally remove the risks, so it's just a suggestion, not
a recommendation. Don't forget that you can configure your browser to
reject a lot of junk like javascript code from untrusted sources, but,
even more important, don't forget that nothing can be trusted.

> postscript - I'm not sure if I will be able to read your replies and
> I'm emailing from a Comcast email account.

You should have no trouble getting replies from the list email server
but please don't attempt to reply to me personally, as my list address
only accepts mail from the list server and in any case my servers will
reject all connection attempts from Comcast IPs.

--

73,
Ged.
_______________________________________________

clamav-devel mailing list
clamav-devel@lists.clamav.net
https://lists.clamav.net/mailman/listinfo/clamav-devel

Please submit your patches to our Github: https://github.com/Cisco-Talos/clamav-devel/pulls

Help us build a comprehensive ClamAV guide:
https://github.com/vrtadmin/clamav-faq

http://www.clamav.net/contact.html#ml

To add to what Joel and Ged have said, the easiest way to install ClamAV on macOS is to use Homebrew (https://brew.sh/) and just run "brew install clamav".

It is probably worth mentioning - ClamAV requires manual configuration to work. The most common use case for ClamAV is to filter files and emails sent or uploaded to email and web servers. ClamAV doesn't have easy setup for use as an endpoint security suite like a traditional anti-virus product. But if you want to use ClamAV as an anti-virus product on your computer you'll have to find way to perform scans and you'll have to figure out what to do if the scan find something. Automatically removing or even moving files that are already on your computer is generally discouraged. You'll have to investigate to determine if you think the file in question is really malware or if it's false alert (false positive) before your remove the file or ignore the alert.

Regards,
Micah

> -----Original Message-----
> From: clamav-devel <clamav-devel-bounces@lists.clamav.net> On Behalf Of
> G.W. Haywood
> Sent: Saturday, January 2, 2021 7:52 AM
> To: clamav-devel@lists.clamav.net
> Subject: Re: [Clamav-devel] making ClamAV available to macOS users through
> the Apple App Store
>
> Hi there,
>
> On Sat, 2 Jan 2021, Finn isme wrote:
>
> > I am an ordinary user of macOS who has dabbled with Linux in the past.
> > I wonder if your organization would be willing to make ClamAV and a
> > ClamAV frontend available on the macOS store. For awhile now, Apple
> > has a no-fee policy for non-profits as shown here:
> > https://developer.apple.com/support/membership-fee-waiver/
>
> I'm not sure that Cisco, with just shy of 76,000 employees and a net annual
> income of over ten billion dollars, qualifies as a 'non-profit':
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisco_Systems
>
> > I would prefer to have some antivirus solution on macOS, however all
> > those available on the Apple App Store seem to have negative reviews
> > concerning how they disrupted the macOS system.
>
> As Joel says, you can indeed install ClamAV on a Mac. If you search the list
> archives you will find many posts from Mac users. Some are very recent. It's
> not perfectly straightforward to install, but then security isn't perfectly
> straightforward. If you are unable to follow the installation instructions at
>
> https://www.clamav.net/documents/installation-on-macos-mac-os-x
>
> then you can always ask for help on the ClamAV users list (not on this list,
> which as you know is for development).
>
> Do not, however, assume that if you install ClamAV then you are as if by magic
> somehow "protected". That's a long way from being the case.
> Your best protections are to keep on top of security updates, (both the Mac
> system and any installed software), to be sensible about what software you
> install on your computer, about what you browse, and how you deal with
> email. Note that many software offerings which claim to offer 'protection' of
> some kind are simply malicious software, thinly disguised as something that
> you would want on your computer. Perhaps even most of them. I would
> never install an 'app' from any store, on anything, no matter what its
> promoters promised to provide. The first thing I did when I got a smartphone
> was remove all the apps that came with it, including the browser. It now has
> exactly two apps on it. I built them myself. It's never been compromised, nor
> has anything on our network.
>
> Take great care with email. At the moment I'm getting a more than thousand
> malicious messages per month from 'protection.outlook.com' - Microsoft's
> own email service. The messages mostly come from servers in Austria, Eire,
> Finland, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and the USA but I do see a few from
> elsewhere. Google's email service used to lead my league table of cr@p
> email suppliers, now they're second to Microsoft.
>
> If you feel it's essential to accept some level of risk, you could for example
> intall a virtual machine package on the Mac, and use a browser running on the
> VM instead of the one running native on your Mac. Even a VM doesn't totally
> remove the risks, so it's just a suggestion, not a recommendation. Don't forget
> that you can configure your browser to reject a lot of junk like javascript code
> from untrusted sources, but, even more important, don't forget that nothing
> can be trusted.
>
> > postscript - I'm not sure if I will be able to read your replies and
> > I'm emailing from a Comcast email account.
>
> You should have no trouble getting replies from the list email server but
> please don't attempt to reply to me personally, as my list address only accepts
> mail from the list server and in any case my servers will reject all connection
> attempts from Comcast IPs.
>
> --
>
> 73,
> Ged.
> _______________________________________________
>
> clamav-devel mailing list
> clamav-devel@lists.clamav.net
> https://lists.clamav.net/mailman/listinfo/clamav-devel
>
> Please submit your patches to our Github: https://github.com/Cisco-
> Talos/clamav-devel/pulls
>
> Help us build a comprehensive ClamAV guide:
> https://github.com/vrtadmin/clamav-faq
>
> http://www.clamav.net/contact.html#ml
_______________________________________________

clamav-devel mailing list
clamav-devel@lists.clamav.net
https://lists.clamav.net/mailman/listinfo/clamav-devel

Please submit your patches to our Github: https://github.com/Cisco-Talos/clamav-devel/pulls

Help us build a comprehensive ClamAV guide:
https://github.com/vrtadmin/clamav-faq

http://www.clamav.net/contact.html#ml