Not very good at catching things ! - Jeff Mincey

No security software -- no matter how good it is -- will find ALL malware. This doesn't mean one product is no better than another but only that you shouldn't be so quick to judge on the basis of a single miss such as the one you cite in your post. ClamAV will not protect you against all malware either.

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Saturday, March 21 2009 @ 10:20 AM PDT

Only good for catching MOSX specific malware - zunipus

PC Tools provides a list of what their freeware version of iAntiVirus will find on Mac. The program looks specifically for Mac OS X malware, period. It is totally clueless about ANYTHING that is PC specific or Microsoft Office specific.

Why? It's freeware! Pay for something if you want thorough coverage.

Meanwhile, if you dig around, you can find the malware list for ClamAV. What you'll find is that it focuses almost exclusively on Windows malware and Microsoft Office malware. Its collection of Mac malware definitions stopped dead with Trojan.OSX.RSPlug.A in October 2007. Meanwhile, there have been 6 further versions of RSPLUG. Also missing are Trojan.OSX.PokerStealer.A and TrojanOSX.iServices.A & B. That's 9 missing, and very current, Mac malware. Conclusion: ClamAV is fine for preventing your machine from passing along Windows and Microsoft Office malware. It is essentially WORTHLESS for Mac malware.

I have personally attempted to get someone interested in improving ClamAV for Mac. Instead what I heard back was either contentiousness or total apathy. Therefore, I don't expect the ClamAV situation to change.

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Tuesday, March 31 2009 @ 01:43 PM PDT