Take the 2-minute tour ×

I installed ClamAV (clamav-daemon and clamav-freshclam) in order to set up a policy of regularly scanning my LTSP thin client setup for Windows viruses.

Currently, we have a variety of users, each with their own group. All files in their home directory are owned by each user, and to each user's group. How can I have clamdscan read all of their files, whether 0700 or not, while not running clamdscan as root? (which is just asking for problems)

share|improve this question
There's a launchpad ticket open with your problem. bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/clamav/+bug/450250 –  Joseph Kern Oct 13 '09 at 14:01

1 Answer 1

up vote 1 down vote accepted

Maybe, you should install a job to each user's crontab, so all files are scanned collectively by a user's instance of clamdscan?

share|improve this answer
We'd also have to disable a user's ability to edit their crontab, since a malicious user could just disable the scan. –  lfaraone Oct 14 '09 at 16:18
Hm. So run a task as root (so crontast is not removable) and su to each user's account just before launching clamdscan :) –  kolypto Oct 15 '09 at 0:03

Your Answer


