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How to Test the Working of your Antivirus – EICAR Test

Submitted by Srikanth on Saturday, 17 April 201057 Comments

Have you ever wondered how to test your Antivirus software to ensure it’s proper working? Well here is a quick and easy way to test your antivirus. The process is called EICAR test which will work on any antivirus and was developed by European Institute of Computer Antivirus Research. This process can be used by people, companies and antivirus programmers to test the proper functioning of the antivirus/antimalware software without having to deal with the real computer virus which can cause damage to the computer. Here is a step-by-step procedure to test your antivirus.

1. Open a notepad (New Text Document.TXT) and copy the following code exactly onto it, and save the notepad.

EICAR Test code
X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

2. Rename the file from New Text Document.TXT to myfile.com

3. Now run the antivirus scan on this myfile.com file.

If the antivirus is functioning properly on your computer, then it should generate a warning and immediately delete the file upon scanning. Otherwise you may have to re-install your antivirus.

NOTE: Most antivirus will pop-out a warning message in the Step-1 itself

You can also place the myfile.com file in a ZIP or RAR file and run a scan on it so as to ensure whether your antivirus can detect the test string in the compressed archive. Any antivirus when scanning this file will respond exactly as it will do for a genuine virus/malicious code. This test will cause no damage to your computer even though the antivirus will flag it as a malicious script. Hence it is the safest method to test the proper functioning of any antivirus.

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57 Comments »

  • Muralimohan.A.R said:

    Thanks for the Information ,brother…….
    it worked well …..
    can u give me the details of how to create virus in turbo c++ program??

    - 18 April 2010 at 2:05 PM
  • Fauzi said:

    Explain about the code we are testing…what is the code all about?thanks man..keep up the good work..AVG is working…

    - 18 April 2010 at 4:18 PM
  • rajesh said:

    It works its really wonderful.

    - 18 April 2010 at 4:26 PM
  • funcky said:

    hi srikanth,

    i tried most with different file extensions i worked fine but it didnt when i try to change the text(unusaul things happened)…P

    can i know that text exactly mean(any algorithm)?

    - 18 April 2010 at 4:57 PM
  • victor said:

    @Sri
    Thanks for postin n enlighten us once again.I was just wondering if u could suggest us some cool antivirus security software.

    - 19 April 2010 at 12:40 PM
  • Evans James said:

    Hello dear srinkath,
    you are really doing a good job on this site, ur very brilliant so keep it up and we stand by you.

    - 19 April 2010 at 11:02 PM
  • pal said:

    nice one boss

    - 20 April 2010 at 10:22 AM
  • AADARSH said:

    its really awesome ………..
    to test our antivirus its really works….. man……

    - 28 April 2010 at 12:15 PM
  • Rakesh said:

    cool dude…..it worked….

    - 29 April 2010 at 11:26 AM
  • ASWIN DEV P.K said:

    The first code that can test the capability of antivirus without any harm to computer.Thanks a lot lol!!!!!!!!!!!!

    - 30 April 2010 at 2:37 PM
  • BROTHER said:

    thnnx…..my kaspersky works

    - 1 May 2010 at 8:15 PM
  • Mrityunjay said:

    Thanks…………its really working

    - 4 May 2010 at 7:12 PM
  • GnanaSekar.S said:

    hi…its superb…

    - 4 May 2010 at 8:58 PM
  • Deepak D'SKYNET said:

    Dear Sir, Thank For This Tricks To Check Our ANTI VIRUS Program Is Working Or Not.. Thank…. My Quick Heal Total Security 2010 Is WOrking Smoothly…. BEST OF LUCK For ur NEXT Creation….

    Deepak Kumar Mishra

    - 6 May 2010 at 10:47 AM
  • Jerald said:

    it’s very good to check the life of the anti virus

    - 6 May 2010 at 8:53 PM
  • mayank said:

    nice important trick

    - 7 May 2010 at 12:55 PM
  • Arab said:

    Hey it work good but it does not work when kaspersky is installed its only work when avast latest version antivirus is installed

    - 7 May 2010 at 9:21 PM
  • chanchal singh said:

    it’s great .
    it works on avast 5.0

    - 9 May 2010 at 3:58 PM
  • Paurakh said:

    thanks for help

    - 19 May 2010 at 6:20 AM
  • Sachin said:

    Thank you very much. Microsoft Security Essentials works

    - 27 May 2010 at 4:05 PM
  • ammy said:

    i have tested it on my antivirus
    and it dosent alert me against it
    please tell me what 2 do
    iTS LATEST EDITION of NP

    - 28 May 2010 at 2:59 PM
  • Wally said:

    Malwarebytes Antivirus Malware and SuperAnitiSpyware did not detect the virus.
    Norton Internet Security 2010 did detect and delete the virus.
    Thanks

    - 30 May 2010 at 5:07 PM
  • rinish said:

    hey dude it really works. thanx

    - 2 June 2010 at 12:40 PM
  • Rohan said:

    Hello Brother, Its working in my e-Scan Pro in First Step. Nice Job……..,Keep it on……

    - 2 June 2010 at 2:00 PM
  • Rohan said:

    i am a new reader of ur site , but i found lot more things ro read …
    thanks

    - 2 June 2010 at 2:04 PM
  • Raj said:

    great work…..
    my antivirus(Eset) detected it….

    - 3 June 2010 at 12:44 PM
  • sudipta said:

    good job this is very work full.

    - 4 June 2010 at 5:34 PM
  • Aliul said:

    i am a new reader of ur site.i am very glad to this website.
    Thanks to go hacking.

    - 4 June 2010 at 8:58 PM
  • siva sankar said:

    its working…

    i am using kaspersky it detect automatically as soon as the file is created

    - 7 June 2010 at 8:19 AM
  • Abhijeet said:

    Hi shrikant
    I tested this code .While saving it was showing that it is virus.
    Thanks a lot for this.But tell me how we can trust this code.What is this code.How does it work

    - 7 June 2010 at 11:04 AM
  • shaurya said:

    dat was gr8. can u tell me is there any way to break word07 password?

    - 8 June 2010 at 1:12 AM
  • sanjay said:

    hi shrikant i’m sanjay
    this is my first visit to ur site…….. what ever i want it is in ur site………. what to say about ur work it is simply excellent…

    - 15 June 2010 at 12:20 AM
  • bhavesh said:

    hey bro i can make a prank virus but want to know how can i make and use a really virus.by the way few days b4 my facebook account have being hacked by a boy i know him and want to do the same but helpless as i dont know hw can i hack his acc. if u can help me
    it will b very thankful to u

    my email id :[email protected]

    by the way ur work for these site is awesome the info are very help full too

    thanxx a lot
    hope u will help me soon :)

    - 16 June 2010 at 2:16 AM
  • Sudipto Maity said:

    This is Excellent,,,,,,,,,Please kindly tell me from where I can know the codes like these ??? Thank xxx

    - 16 June 2010 at 9:51 PM
  • dsad said:

    I’m impressed..It worked!It is a very simple way to test your antivirus software…Good job!

    - 23 June 2010 at 6:34 PM
  • Saikat Dutta said:

    how does the code work ? please tell me…sir

    - 26 June 2010 at 10:14 PM
  • MANOJ said:

    hi brother i have tested it on my avast antivirus and bitdefender total security 2010 but it is not working on both of them what to do and what is this angry ip scanner what is the use of ethernal adsl router hacking plz help in this regand bro

    - 1 July 2010 at 6:40 PM
  • Jayant said:

    Thanks Srikant

    It works….which is better?avg;mcaffe;avast;avaira;kaspersly;norton or other??

    - 3 July 2010 at 12:46 PM
  • vikas said:

    Gr8 test!! But please explain the code .

    - 3 July 2010 at 5:42 PM
  • HASTHIS said:

    Thanks for another useful info bro

    - 6 July 2010 at 10:55 AM
  • Srikanth (author) said:

    @ Jayant

    Bit Defender and Kaspersky are the current leaders in the antivirus market. Norton is also recommended.

    - 6 July 2010 at 1:26 PM
  • Deepak said:

    Boss It’s working…
    Thank you very much…

    - 11 July 2010 at 9:53 AM
  • chaitu said:

    iam using ESET SMART SECURITY and it did not show nay warning

    - 13 July 2010 at 10:31 PM
  • chaitu said:

    thanks boss my eset smart security is working very wellllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

    - 13 July 2010 at 10:37 PM
  • chandu said:

    thanks sir it is working.. how does the code work ? please tell me…sir. and which antivirus is best? iam using avast 5.0.594..

    - 15 July 2010 at 6:49 AM
  • gaurav said:

    i got only one infected file but no any warnning

    - 22 July 2010 at 3:39 PM
  • Dallas said:

    Save it as “Mylife” also works. - Also, when you did the remove recycle bin from desktop, simply right-click and remove it. =) Happy hacking…

    - 24 July 2010 at 3:31 PM
  • aijolee said:

    ESET Smart Security 4.0… deleted it upon saving,! it worked!

    - 26 July 2010 at 11:58 AM
  • Amit said:

    MY NPV doesnt detect it

    - 9 August 2010 at 10:02 AM
  • siddu said:

    thanks bosss…………………..

    - 16 August 2010 at 10:10 PM
  • BlacMoon said:

    thanks friend……..
    my eset nod32 works perfectly. i checked it out…

    - 22 August 2010 at 10:21 AM
  • YIA Z said:

    IT’s niccccccccccce……….

    - 22 August 2010 at 5:31 PM
  • ameer said:

    it’s awsome ans its work realyy nice.thanks for the tips pal.

    - 26 August 2010 at 1:40 PM
  • aashish said:

    how can we remove win32\heur without a antivirus

    - 26 August 2010 at 2:02 PM
  • Rakshit said:

    veryyyyyyyy nice site
    my favourite site……….
    thanks for tips………
    keep going……..

    - 2 September 2010 at 3:53 PM
  • balaji said:

    thanx it is working in symantec norton antivirus, bitdefender, eset32, avg, avast, kaspersky, quickheal, mcafee thanks alot

    - 3 September 2010 at 5:37 PM
  • Arunim said:

    Hiiiiiiiii This is arunim it worked thankss.i make a virus programme to disable usb ports in c++ when i excute it shows error related to 16 bit.Please Help!!!!!!!!

    - 4 September 2010 at 10:57 PM