For an open source antivirus for system protection, the strongest matches are cisco-talos/clamav (ClamAV is a mature open-source antivirus engine that provides), cisco-talos/clamav-devel (ClamAV is a well-established open-source antivirus engine that provides) and rfxn/linux-malware-detect (A multi-engine Linux malware scanner with real-time inotify monitoring). fail2ban/fail2ban and stamparm/maltrail round out the shortlist. Each is ranked by relevance to your query, popularity and recent activity.
We curate open-source GitHub repositories matching “open source antivirus”. Results are ranked by relevance to your query — pick filters below to narrow, or refine with AI.
ClamAV - Documentation is here: https://docs.clamav.net
ClamAV is a mature open-source antivirus engine that provides real-time on-access scanning, signature-based detection with community-updated definitions, cross-platform support, and quarantine management, making it a comprehensive solution for protecting computers and networks from malware.
ClamAV is an open-source antivirus engine and malware detection scanner. It identifies trojans, viruses, and other malicious software by scanning files and data streams against a database of known signatures. The system functions as a signature-based threat detector, allowing for the implementation of threat intelligence by turning malware samples into actionable signatures. It supports the creation of custom malware signatures to identify specific or specialized security threats. The engine provides capabilities for endpoint security monitoring and comprehensive malware detection scanning a
ClamAV is a well-established open-source antivirus engine that provides signature-based malware detection, cross-platform support, and community-driven definitions, making it a strong candidate even though real-time protection and a built-in GUI require additional setup.
Linux Malware Detect is a security platform designed for Linux server environments to identify and isolate malicious files. It functions as a multi-engine scanner that utilizes signature-based detection, heuristic analysis, and pattern matching to maintain system integrity. The tool provides automated auditing and real-time monitoring to detect unauthorized modifications as they occur. The system distinguishes itself through kernel-level event monitoring, which triggers immediate scans upon file changes, and checkpoint-based scan resumption, which allows long-running operations to pause and r
A multi-engine Linux malware scanner with real-time inotify monitoring, signature-based detection via ClamAV and YARA, heuristic analysis, and quarantine, it is a genuine antivirus tool for Linux—though not cross-platform, it covers most required features in its domain.
Fail2ban is an intrusion prevention system that monitors system log files to detect malicious activity and automatically enforce security policies. By parsing log data in real time, the tool identifies patterns of unauthorized access or repeated authentication failures and responds by dynamically updating network access control lists to restrict offending sources. The software functions as a firewall automation tool that maintains stateful tracking of suspicious behavior across various network services. It utilizes a regex-driven pattern matching engine to identify specific attack signatures,
Fail2ban is an intrusion prevention system that blocks malicious IPs based on log patterns, not an antivirus that scans files for malware; it protects against brute-force attacks and unauthorized access, not viruses or trojans.
Maltrail is a malicious traffic detection system used for network intrusion detection. It consists of a network intrusion sensor for monitoring interfaces, a threat intelligence aggregator for syncing blacklists, and a detection engine that identifies security threats through signature matching and heuristic attack patterns. The system distinguishes itself through a distributed sensor architecture that collects traffic data from multiple remote probes and forwards events to a central analysis server. It employs heuristic behavioral analysis to identify unknown threats, such as port scanning o
Maltrail is a network intrusion detection system that monitors traffic for malicious patterns and threats, but it does not scan files or provide endpoint quarantine — it protects the network, not the computer itself, so it is a different category than the antivirus tool you are searching for.
Binsider is a collection of specialized toolsets for hexadecimal editing, ELF structural analysis, system call tracing, and execution performance profiling. It provides a suite of utilities designed for binary reverse engineering, encompassing both static structural analysis and dynamic runtime monitoring of compiled binaries. The project distinguishes itself by combining low-level binary manipulation, such as a hex editor for raw byte modification, with an ELF binary analysis tool for inspecting file structures and metadata. It also includes a Linux system call tracer for observing dynamic b
Binsider is a set of binary reverse-engineering and system-call-tracing utilities (hex editor, ELF analyzer, profiler), not an antivirus program—it helps analyze malware but does not provide real-time protection, signature/heuristic detection, or quarantine management.
LogonTracer is a security auditing tool designed for logon analysis and forensic log auditing. It functions as a dockerized security auditor that utilizes a security event graph database to map account names and network addresses, allowing for the visualization of complex system compromise patterns and authentication paths. The system features a Sigma detection engine that scans imported event logs against standardized rule sets to identify known malicious activity. It also includes an anomalous behavior detector that applies statistical analysis, graph algorithms, and hidden Markov models to
LogonTracer is a logon analysis and forensic auditing tool for visualizing authentication paths and detecting suspicious behavior in event logs, not an antivirus program that actively protects against malware via real-time scanning, signature detection, or quarantine management.
CrowdSec is a collaborative, distributed security engine designed for threat detection and infrastructure protection. It functions as an intrusion detection system that parses logs and network traffic to identify malicious patterns, utilizing a bucket-based threshold detection model to aggregate events and trigger alerts. The platform is built on a modular architecture that includes a centralized local API server for managing security signals and a relational database for persistent storage of remediation decisions. What distinguishes the project is its decoupled enforcement model, which offl
CrowdSec is a collaborative intrusion detection and prevention system that analyzes logs and network traffic to block malicious IPs, but it is not an antivirus program—it does not perform file-based malware scanning, signature detection, or quarantine management as this search requires.
Suricata is an open-source network intrusion detection and prevention engine that analyzes live network traffic in real-time to identify and alert on malicious activity. It operates as a rule-based threat detection system, matching traffic against user-defined signatures to detect known attack patterns and policy violations, and can be placed inline to actively block malicious packets before they reach their target. The engine inspects a wide range of application-layer protocols including HTTP, DNS, TLS, SMB, and MQTT, and supports high-performance packet capture through specialized hardware a
Suricata is a network intrusion detection and prevention engine that analyzes live traffic for threats, but it is not a host-based antivirus program—it protects networks from malicious packets rather than scanning and removing malware from a computer.
Faraday is a vulnerability management platform and security tool aggregator designed to centralize security findings from multiple scanners into a single dashboard. It utilizes a relational security database to catalog hosts, services, and security flaws, enabling users to track remediation and analyze organizational risk. The platform distinguishes itself through a plugin-based system that normalizes diverse security tool outputs into a unified data model. It supports deep integration with a wide array of scanners and CLI tools, intercepting shell command output or parsing report files to ag
Faraday is a vulnerability management platform that aggregates security scan results from multiple tools, not an antivirus program that provides real-time malware protection, signature-based detection, or quarantine management.
This project is a detection-as-code framework providing a library of security monitoring rules and predefined detection content for Elasticsearch data indices. It serves as a threat detection rule library designed to identify malicious activity and attack patterns across diverse data streams in cloud and on-premises environments. The framework implements a detection engineering workflow where rules are defined in YAML and managed as versioned code. It includes a set of command-line utilities for automated rule deployment, metadata searching, and template generation, supported by a Python-base
This repository provides threat detection rules for Elasticsearch rather than a full antivirus program with real-time scanning, quarantine, and signature-based detection, so it is a component for security monitoring but not the standalone protection tool you are looking for.
| Repository | Stars | Language | License | Last push |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| cisco-talos/clamav | 6.9K | C | GPL-2.0 | |
| cisco-talos/clamav-devel | 6.9K | C | GPL-2.0 | |
| rfxn/linux-malware-detect | 1.5K | Shell | GPL-2.0 | |
| fail2ban/fail2ban | 18K | Python | NOASSERTION | |
| stamparm/maltrail | 8.5K | Python | MIT | |
| orhun/binsider | 3.9K | Rust | apache-2.0 | |
| jpcertcc/logontracer | 3.1K | Python | other | |
| crowdsecurity/crowdsec | 12.6K | Go | mit | |
| oisf/suricata | 6K | C | gpl-2.0 | |
| infobyte/faraday | 6.5K | Python | GPL-3.0 |