The European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research (EICAR) distributes the EICAR Standard Antivirus Test File, which is a text file that is not a virus, but that many antivirus products, including DSAV and F-PROT, will treat as if it were. This is useful as an installation test to ensure that the software is behaving properly or to see how an antivirus product might react when it encounters a virus.
As of this writing, we are aware of no Macintosh antivirus products that support the EICAR Standard Antivirus Test File.
PC users, however, may create a file named e.g., EICAR.COM that starts with the following 68 characters:
X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*
You can copy and paste this into Windows NotePad, then use File/Save As to name it EICAR.COM -- or you can use any editor or word processor to create the file, as long as you save it in text mode. Note that the third character is a capital "o", not a "zero".
Or you can download a copy of EICAR.COM by clicking here. (Some antivirus programs may trigger on your attempt to download; others will not.)
Some products will alert as you try to download; others will stop you from copying or running EICAR.COM. If no antivirus product is in use, EICAR.COM will print the message "EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!" on the screen and exit. Since it's completely safe, you can experiment for yourself!
Read more about the
EICAR Standard Antivirus Test File at EICAR's web site. (leaving our page)