I would invest the time in making the case that AV software on a Solaris box is a waste of time and money.
If they were really serious about security, they'd be much better off installing host based IDS.
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Anti-Virus for Solaris 10?
We've just installed an environment consisting of several Sun servers running Solaris 10. The boxes will be used as a portal for a business intelligence reporting environment. The servers are being configured as a dedicated web server, dedicated application server, dedicated data base server, and a dedicated backup server.
Our customer requires anti-virus software for all servers, but our customer is a Windows shop, so they require antivirus software on all their Windows boxes. We have never installed anti-virus software on Solaris boxes in this type of environment because all available products on the market seem to apply only to environments that scan or host mail servers (not done by these servers), function as an x86 file server (these boxes don't), or boxes that serve as a gateway/proxy server for general web access (also not done by these boxes).
The environment sits behind the customer's firewalls and will be used strictly by users behind the firewall. Yet, the customer wants anti-virus software. Other than wasting their money on 'feel good' software that really doesn't provide any real benefit, I don't see what other option is available.
Can anyone recommend an anti-virus product that will be of any use in this environment? Or do I just make the case using the type of info above that AV software isn't required or available?
TIA
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Answers
I would have to agree with Tintin. I have been working on UNIX systems since 1984, AT&T, Radio Shack then HP-UX and Solaris and BSD derivatives, on to Linuz and, in over twenty years, I have never even seen an infected system. The majority of threats written nowadays are made by script kiddies and individuals trying to steal infomation from your web browser about buying habits and purchases. Still, a system that cannot be accessed by outisde users is still not 100% safe. The biggest threat to a UNIX system is internal users either stealing data or setting up timebombs that will destroy the system if, or after, after they have been terminated. Your best bet for a UNIX system is a reliable backup solution and disaster recovery plan. That, along with a good firewall and, if possible, a quality Intrusion Detection System (again, the IDS Tintin mentioned) covers all the bases. I like the Network General IDS systems. Not suprisingly, they are UNIX based.
Solaris is a Virus FREE OS, the virus for M$ can't run on Solaris. But you do need to worry about computer security (hackers).
Please read this Solaris 10 security How To Guide:
http://www.sun.com/softwar
and
http:Q_21500053.html
You can install somekind of anti-virus for scanning the mail boxes so you can get rid of the virus
before the email get in your your user's desktop PCs.
eg:
http://www.rav.ro/pages/sh
http://www.ravantivirus.co
http://www.symantec.com/re
Another suggestion would be to look into ClamAV (http://www.clamav.org), which should compile and run on your Sun boxes, and do whatever you really need it to do (like scan specific folders, stream-scan mails, scan entire volumes, etc.). It is free, and well maintained.
Whether it is of any use in your environment ... Well ... As previously mentioned, most viruses target Win32. Scanning things that Windows-machines have direct access to can provide an added layer of security (i.e. 2 different scanning engines instead of one), but it won't really increase the security of the servers in question themselves.
err http://www.clamav.net, sorry about that.
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by: PowerITPosted on 2006-08-23 at 09:23:53ID: 17373878
F-prot has an antivirus for Solaris, not only for email servers but also for file and application servers. This is probably what they are looking for: scanning all file access, as they are used to this in Windows.
http://www.f-prot.com/prod
But IMHO they are indeed wasting money and you should just make the case that AV is not required, if they have all other possible entry points covered.
We have a similar setup - altough on AIX en Linux - and have all Windows servers and clients covered by AV and also have an AV running on the gateway.
So if they don't have AV on the gateway, it would make more sense to invest it there.
J.