How to install Malware Detect ( maldetect or LMD ) in Debian 8

Tutorials - Jan 13, 2016 | by - no comments - 15,957 views

1. Introduction

Malwares are kind of malicious software which damage the system, in order to avoid such harmful threats the user should aware of the changes that he is made in the server.
Linux Malware Detect(LMD) is a malware scanner for Linux released under the GNU GPLv2 license. It is a effective tool in order to find infected files and there by removing threats.

2. Download LMD archive latest version .

Go to /usr/local/src in which we can download the latest LMD.

# wget http://www.rfxn.com/downloads/maldetect-current.tar.gz

3. Extract the downloaded file.

# tar -zxvf maldetect-current.tar.gz

Change present directory location to extracted directory

# cd maldetect-1.5

4. Run Installation Script

Install LMD by running the following script, it is the easiest way to do this installation part.

# ./install.sh

5. Edit configuration file

Open LMD main configuration file using vi editor and edit the following parameters.

#  vi /usr/local/maldetect/conf.maldet

Make sure the below value is enabled

 scan_clamscan="1"

To get mail alerts, make it to 1 else 0

email_alert="1"

The email id , in which you want to get alerts

email_addr="you@domain.com"

Set default quarantine action for malware hits

quarantine_hits="1"

To clean the detected malware


quarantine_clean="1"

The default suspend action for users wih hits

quarantine_suspend_user="0"

The minimum userid value that can be suspended

quarantine_suspend_user_minuid="500"

6. Start scanning the system

Run following command to scan the system with LMD. Use maldet followed by directory which you want to scan.

# maldet -m /usr/local/
Linux Malware Detect v1.5
            (C) 2002-2015, R-fx Networks 
            (C) 2015, Ryan MacDonald 
This program may be freely redistributed under the terms of the GNU GPL v2

maldet(29347): {scan} signatures loaded: 10822 (8908 MD5 / 1914 HEX / 0 USER)
maldet(29347): {scan} building file list for /, this might take awhile...
maldet(29347): {scan} setting nice scheduler priorities for all operations: cpunice 19 , ionice 6
maldet(29347): {scan} file list completed in 0s, found 3070 files...
maldet(29347): {scan} scan of / (3070 files) in progress...
maldet(29347): {scan} 3070/3070 files scanned: 0 hits 0 cleaned
maldet(29347): {scan} scan completed on /: files 3070, malware hits 0, cleaned hits 0, time 96s
maldet(29347): {scan} scan report saved, to view run: maldet --report 160111-0858.29347

7. To Print the result

Print the number of infected files

# maldet --report 160111-0858.29347

HOST:      amal-debian8
SCAN ID:   160111-0858.29347
STARTED:   Jan 11 2016 08:58:50 +0300
COMPLETED: Jan 11 2016 09:00:26 +0300
ELAPSED:   96s [find: 0s]

PATH:          /
TOTAL FILES:   3070
TOTAL HITS:    0
TOTAL CLEANED: 0

Linux Malware Detect v1.5 < proj@rfxn.com >

8. Update virus Signature and LMD

Execute given commands to update virus signatures and LMD version.

Update virus signatures to latest

# maldet -u

This program may be freely redistributed under the terms of the GNU GPL v2

maldet(8348): {sigup} performing signature update check...
maldet(8348): {sigup} local signature set is version 2015121610247
maldet(8348): {sigup} latest signature set already installed

Update LMD to latest


# maldet -d

Linux Malware Detect v1.5
            (C) 2002-2015, R-fx Networks 
            (C) 2015, Ryan MacDonald 
This program may be freely redistributed under the terms of the GNU GPL v2

maldet(8237): {update} checking for available updates...
maldet(8237): {update} hashing install files and checking against server...
maldet(8237): {update} latest version already installed.

9. Remove infected files

Use following command to remove infected files
Reference: From previous scan my scan ID was 160111-0858.29347, it must be different for you. You can check this from your scan results.


# maldet -n

See Also: