---
title: Anti-virus
url: 'https://docs.danami.com/sentinel/user-guide/antivirus'
markdown: 'https://docs.danami.com/sentinel/user-guide/antivirus.md'
date: '2026-09-25'
description: 'The anti-virus portion of Sentinel is powered by ClamAV®. ClamAV is an open source anti-virus engine used in a variety of situations including web scanning, and end point security. It provides a number of utilities including a flexible and scalable multi-threaded daemon, a command line scanner and …'
taxonomy:
  category:
    - docs
  tag:
    - antivirus
---

[](#)  [ Basics ](https://docs.danami.com/sentinel/)     [ User Guide ](https://docs.danami.com/sentinel/user-guide)      Anti-virus    

# Anti-virus

The anti-virus portion of Sentinel is powered by ClamAV®. ClamAV is an open source anti-virus engine used in a variety of situations including web scanning, and end point security. It provides a number of utilities including a flexible and scalable multi-threaded daemon, a command line scanner and an advanced tool for automatic database updates.

## Features

- Command-line scanner
- Advanced database updater with support for scripted updates and digital signatures
- Virus database updated multiple times per day
- Built-in support for all standard mail file formats
- Built-in support for various archive formats, including Zip, RAR, Dmg, Tar, Gzip, Bzip2, OLE2, Cabinet, CHM, BinHex, SIS and others
- Built-in support for ELF executables and Portable Executable files packed with UPX, FSG, Petite, NsPack, wwpack32, MEW, Upack and obfuscated with SUE, Y0da Cryptor and others
- Built-in support for popular document formats including MS Office and MacOffice files, HTML, Flash, RTF and PDF

## Restarting ClamAV

#### AlmaLinux / CloudLinux / RHEL / Rocky Linux

```
// restart clamav
systemctl restart clamd@scan

// restart freshclam
systemctl restart clamav-freshclam
```

#### Debian / Ubuntu

```
// restart clamav
systemctl restart clamav-daemon

// restart freshclam
systemctl restart clamav-freshclam

```

## Updating signatures

On AlmaLinux / CloudLinux / RHEL / Rocky Linux and Debian/Ubuntu freshclam has its own running service:

```
systemctl status clamav-freshclam
```

Signatures are stored in the directory `/var/lib/clamav`.

## Reloading signatures

You can tell the ClamAV daemon to reload its signtures using the command:

```
clamdscan --reload
```

## Reporting Malware

If you have a virus that is not detected by ClamAV, please fill out <https://www.clamav.net/reports/malware> and the ClamAV Detection Content Team will review your submission and update the virus database.

## Related Files

| File | Description |
|---|---|
| `/etc/clamd.d/scan.conf` | Configuration file for ClamAV on AlmaLinux / CloudLinux / RHEL / Rocky Linux |
| `/etc/clamav/clamd.conf` | Configuration file for ClamAV on Debian/Ubuntu |
| `/etc/freshclam.conf` | Configuration file for ClamAV signature updates on AlmaLinux / CloudLinux / RHEL / Rocky Linux |
| `/etc/clamav/freshclam.conf` | Configuration file for ClamAV signature updates on Debian/Ubuntu |

## Related Pages

- [Scanning Settings](https://docs.danami.com/sentinel/settings/antivirus/scanning-settings "Scanning Settings")
- [Scanning Limits](https://docs.danami.com/sentinel/settings/antivirus/scanning-limits "Scanning Limits")

 [](https://docs.danami.com/sentinel/command-line-interface/antivirus/antivirus-antivirus)

---

## Navigation

- Parent: [User Guide](https://docs.danami.com/sentinel/user-guide.md)
- Previous: [Anti-malware](https://docs.danami.com/sentinel/user-guide/antimalware.md)