How To Install ClamAV on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install ClamAV on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, ClamAV is an open-source (GPL) antivirus engine for detecting trojans, viruses, malware, adware, rootkits, and other malicious threats on Linux. It’s easy to use and best for Linux-based Web and Mail servers.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of ClamAV on a Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) server.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Ubuntu 20.04, 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
• A non-root sudo useror access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install ClamAV on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa

Step 1. First, make sure that all your system packages are up-to-date by running the following apt commands in the terminal.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Step 2. Installing ClamAV on Ubuntu 20.04.

The default Ubuntu 20.04 repositories contain the latest stable release version of ClamAV. You can simply install it and its utilities by using the command below:

sudo apt install clamav clamav-daemon

Step 3. Update the ClamAV Signature Database.

Once installed, you need an updated virus database. There are two options for updating the ClamAV database:

• clamav-freshclam: updates the database from the Internet. This is recommended with Internet access.
• Offline update for systems with no direct internet access.

Update virus database with Freshclam:

sudo freshclam

It’ll take a few minutes to complete. When it’s done, restart the service:

sudo systemctl start clamav-freshclam

Clamscan CLI options and example Usage:

clamscan --infected --remove --recursive /home

Print help information using -h or –help option:

clamscan -h

Congratulations! You have successfully installed ClamAV. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing ClamAV open source antivirus engine in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official ClamAV website.