VPS & Dedicated Hosting: Antivirus

Overview

If you suspect malware, shell scripts, exploits, or viruses on your VPS/Dedicated account, there are tools located in your WHM panel that can be used to scan for such malicious content. First, you will need to be able to login into your WHM. If you haven't done this before, please see How to Log into WHM.

When you go to your WHM login link, you will be presented with the following page:

Log in with the root user and password. If this is your first time logging into W + HM, or if there was a recent cPanel update, you may see a page titled "Feature Showcase." Click on Exit to WHM at the bottom of the page:

There are two main types of virus scanning on VPS and Dedicated servers:

• ClamAV
• ImunifyAV

Installing and using ClamAV

1. Type ClamAV in the search bar in the top left-hand corner, then click on the Manage Plugins link.
   
2. Click on the Install ClamAV for cPanel.
   
3. Once the installation is complete, you will see the ClamAV for cPanel is now installed message.
   
4. Refresh the WHM panel and perform another search for ClamAV using the search bar. Click on Configure ClamAV Scanner, and make sure all boxes are checked.
   
5. Search WHM for feature, and click on the Feature Manager. Choose Bluehost from the Manage feature list, then click edit. 
   
6. Enable Virus Scanning, and click Save. You can find this quickly by searching for virus on the Feature Manager page.
   
7. Now that ClamAV is installed, you can manually run a scan from your server's command line as the root user.
8. For more information on using SSH, please see SSH Access.
9. Be sure to replace the $user with your cPanel username in the command below:
   
   root@server [~]# /usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/bin/clamdscan -i /home/$user/
10. Once the scan is complete, it will give you an output of flagged files and a scan summary. You can use this to help you clean up your cPanel account.

You can uninstall ClamAV under the Manage Plugins section of your WHM panel.

Installing and using ImunifyAV

Imunify360 is a new feature that gets shipped with cPanel starting in cPanel 88. Below are the steps to install and use this new malware scanner.

1. When you upgrade to cPanel 88, you will see the feature showcase in the Feature Showcase. If you want to install ImunifyAV, make sure Enable is selected, then click the Save button at the bottom.
   
2. If the Feature Showcase does not appear when logging into WHM, you can install ImunifyAV manually via SSH.
   
   root@server [~]# wget https://repo.imunify360.cloudlinux.com/defence360/imav-deploy.sh
root@server [~]# bash imav-deploy.sh
3. Once the installation process has begun, wait about 5-10 minutes for the installation to finish. After completing it, visit the ImunifyAV section in your WHM panel by typing imunify in the search bar and clicking Security Advisor.
4. From the ImunifyAV screen, click the actions button next to your cPanel account, and click "Scan for Malware." When it is done, it will give you results.
5. You can select all accounts and scan them simultaneously if you have multiple accounts.
   

You can uninstall ImunifyAV via the command line.

root@server [~]# bash imav-deploy.sh --uninstall

If you have deleted the imav-deploy.sh, you can re-download it first:

root@server [~]# wget https://repo.imunify360.cloudlinux.com/defence360/imav-deploy.sh

Summary

If files show up on any of the malware scans, please note that some of the files might be vital to the functionality of your site and only contain snippets of malicious code that have been injected. You will want to work to remove the malicious code without deleting the file. Other files might be wholly malicious and should be deleted.

If you need assistance with removing malware, we recommend reaching out to our malware scanning partner, SiteLock. SiteLock also has plans that include a content delivery network (CDN) and a web application firewall (WAF) that aid in protecting against malicious attacks.

Even with active firewalls, most of the vulnerabilities a hacker uses to access your site and file structure are within your website scripts and software. It is vital to make sure all software is updated, including themes, plugins, and modules. This is the most important way to help prevent malware and keep your account and server secure.