[geeks] Dumb question - how to send myself a virus signature (to test AV software)?

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Mike Meredith <mike at redhairy1.demon.co.uk>
>Date: Tue Jul 19 13:34:15 CDT 2005
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] Dumb question - how to send myself a virus signature (to test AV software)?

>On Tue, 19 Jul 2005 13:26:45 -0500 (CDT), Lionel Peterson wrote:
>> Seems to me that an AV software vendor must have some provision to
>> send innocuous email that matches their signature database to test an
>> installation - any pointers?
>
>Eicar test virus. Try :-
>
>http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm
>
>By a strange coincidence I've been sending it a large number of times
>myself to test dual engine virus scanning. If you want a real virus, let
>me know as I've got one or two sitting in my malware archive (some AV
>engines aren't helpful in their formatting of reports on the eicar
>'virus').

Turns out my web email application doesn't look for the EICAR test file in the body of the email (or if it does look, it lets it pass).

I was able to send the EICAR virus signature and it was caught correctly - my cow-orkers web mail cleared the virus out of their emails...

Thanks,

Lionel