TL;DR - What are you running as a means of “antivirus” on Linux servers?

I have a few small Debian 12 servers running my services and would like to enhance my security posture. Some services are exposed to the internet and I’ve done quite a few things to protect the services and the hosts. When it comes to “antivirus”, I was looking at ClamAV as it seemed to be the most recommended. However, when I read the documentation, it stated that the recommended RAM was at least 2-4 gigs. Some of my servers have more power than other but some do not meet this requirement. The lower powered hosts are rpi3s and some Lenovo tinys.

When I searched for alternatives, I came across rkhunter and chrootkit, but they seem to no longer be maintained as their latest release was several years ago.

If possible, I’d like to run the same software across all my servers for simplicity and uniformity.

If you have a similar setup, what are you running? Any other recommendations?

P.S. if you are of the mindset that Linux doesn’t need this kind of protection then fine, that’s your belief, not mine. So please just skip this post.

  • Big P
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    71 year ago

    Mirai and other botnets, coin miners, ransomware… Do you think that malware makers just decided to ignore the billions of Linux servers and IoT devices that exist?

    • @Zeth0s
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      1 year ago

      I agree with you, but, it is also true that the overwhelming majority of ransomwares affect windows https://www.statista.com/statistics/701020/major-operating-systems-targeted-by-ransomware/

      Linux is not a significant target despite being so diffused

      Edit. For those downvoting, windows server is ~20% of the server market and it is second in that stat. GNU/Linux distros such as rhel, debian and so on are almost 80% of server market and still there are no sufficient attacks reported to end up in that stat

      • Big P
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        31 year ago

        True, but the largest botnet in the world runs purely on Linux devices

        • @Zeth0s
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          1 year ago

          It targets router firmwares though… These bot farms do not usually target real gnu/Linux os, because it is easier and more effective to attack router firmwares that are not well configured by producers and telcoms, and are practically never upgraded.

          Therefore they are not a real threat for standard mint or popOS user… Let alone gentoo users

          Edit. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirai_(malware)