VirusTotal
 | |
Type of site | Free checking of suspicious files using multiple antivirus engines. |
|---|---|
| Available in | English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Danish, Russian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Serbian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Persian, Vietnamese |
| Owner | Google Inc. |
| Created by | Hispasec |
| URL | www.virustotal.com |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Optional |
VirusTotal is a website, originally developed by Hispasec, that provides free checking of files for viruses. It uses up to 54[2] different antivirus products[3] and scan engines to check for viruses that the user's own antivirus solution may have missed, or to verify against any false positives.[4] Files up to 128 MB can be uploaded to the website or sent via email.[5] Anti-virus software vendors can receive copies of files that were flagged by other scans but passed by their own engine, to help improve their software and, by extension, VirusTotal's own capability. Users can also scan suspect URLs and search through the VirusTotal dataset. At the moment, VirusTotal is available in 24 languages.
VirusTotal was selected by PC World as one of the best 100 products of 2007.[6]
Friday, 7 September 2012 it was announced that Google Inc. had acquired VirusTotal from Hispasec.[7][8]
VTUploader for Microsoft Windows
VTUploader[9] is an application that integrates into the Explorer's (right-click) contextual menu, listed under Send To > Virus Total. The application also launches manually for submitting a URL or a program that is currently running in the OS.
VirusTotal stores the name and various hashes for each scanned file. Already scanned files can be identified by their known (e.g., VT default) SHA256 hash without uploading complete files. The SHA256 query URL has the form https://www.virustotal.com/latest-scan/SHA256. File uploads are normally limited to 128 MB.[10]
VirusTotal for Browsers
There are several browser extensions is available, such as VTzilla for Mozilla Firefox, VTchromizer for Google Chrome and VTexplorer for Internet Explorer. They allow the user to download files directly with VirusTotal's web application prior to storing them in the computer, as well as scanning URLs.[11]
VirusTotal for Mobile
The service also offers an Android App[12] that employs the public API to search any installed application for VirusTotal's previously scanned ones and show its status. Any application not previously scanned can be submitted, but an API key must be provided and other restrictions to public API usage may apply (see #Public API).
Public API
VirusTotal provides as a free service a public API that allows for automation of some of its online features such as "upload and scan files, submit and scan URLs, access finished scan reports and make automatic comments on URLs and samples". Some restrictions apply for requests made through the public API, such as requiring an individual API key freely obtained by online signing up, low priority scan queue, limited number of requests per time frame, etc.[13]
Acknowledgements
Companies and individuals that have integrated a product, tool or resource in VirusTotal, or have contributed somehow.[14]
Antivirus products
Website/domain scanning engines and datasets
References
- ^ http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/virustotal.com
- ^ "Credits & Acknowledgements" (About VirusTotal). VirusTotal. Retrieved 2014-07-06.
- ^ Example Report
- ^ About VirusTotal
- ^ VirusTotal - Email/Uploader
- ^ PC World - The 100 Best Products of 2007
- ^ Lardinois, Frederic. "Google Acquires Online Virus, Malware and URL Scanner VirusTotal". TechCrunch. Retrieved 12 April 2013.
- ^ An update from VirusTotal
- ^ "VirusTotal Windows Desktop Application". VirusTotal. Retrieved 2014-02-16.
- ^ "What is the maximum file size that can be submitted". FAQ. VirusTotal. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
- ^ "VTzilla: Mozilla Firefox Browser Extension". VirusTotal. Retrieved 2014-03-23.
- ^ "VirusTotal for Android". VirusTotal. Retrieved 2014-03-23.
- ^ "VirusTotal Public API v2.0". VirusTotal. Retrieved 2014-03-23.
- ^ "Credits & Acknowledgements" (About VirusTotal). VirusTotal. Retrieved 2014-07-06.