Pest Control: Free Virus Scanner AVG 8.5

May 07, 2009

AVG Technologies has released a new version of its virus scanner for Linux as AVG 8.5. Biggest features are its malware protection, improved virus filter and on-access scanner based on the RedirFS filesystem.

The Redirect filesystem, RedirFS for short, is another layer between the virtual filesystem (VFS) and actual filesystem drivers. When Linux takes a file, the RedirFS registers it and notifies the new afvlt antivirus filter in the out-of-kernel module, which tests the file for viruses (on-access). The mechanism is said to boost scanning performance. The RedirFS developed by AVG Technologies replaces the DazukoFS that was long used for on-access scanning.

Further enhancements in AVG 8.5 for Linux include an improved heuristic for detecting new and still unknown malware. From this point on the virus scanner also handles system resources better and uses less processing. Thanks to support for 64-bit and multicore CPUs, AVG scales considerably better. The fully modular architecture should also reduce the number of necessary restarts.

AVG 8.5 for Linux runs on all popular distros and is available on the free.avg.com website.

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