Re: virus scanning by squid?

From: Stephen O. Berger <sberger@dont-contact.us>
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 09:07:37 -0500 (EST)

>
> I think it is a very good idea to provide such a service.
>
> The way to do it may be to scan for virus if the file matches entries in a
> list. For example, if the file (or object) name is *.exe, scan the file
> after getting it. If a virus is found, send out a warning html page and
> let the user to choose whether to get the file or not.
>
> This service shall give the user one more reason to use the proxy.
>
> Regards
>

  Virus scanning at this level is practically useless. There are just too
many ways files can be encoded. Files can be gzip'd, zip'd, uuencoded, or
any multiple combination of these and many other encoding schemes. The
squid proxy cannot understand all of the possible encoding schemes and
decode and scan the contents of every file that comes through.

  The only effective place that virus scanning can take place is at the
desktop when programs are run.

Steve

-- 
******************************************************************************
Stephen O. Berger                     |
Senior Systems Engineer               |
Technologic, Inc.                     |  Can your network keep a secret ?
Work Phone: 770-522-0222 ext. 230     |
******************************************************************************
Received on Thu Feb 13 1997 - 06:22:16 MST

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