EICAR Test Virus

A tiny file (not really a virus!) to test virus detection software

This test virus was developed by the European Institute for Computer Anti-Virus Research (EICAR) to provide an easy (and safe!) way to test whether your anti-virus software is working, and see how it reacts when a virus is detected. It is supported by most leading vendors, such as IBM, McAfee, Sophos, and Symantec/Norton.

Download eicar.com to test your anti-virus software
This is a 70-byte file which, if executed, simply displays the message:
Download eicar.zip to test your anti-virus software
This is a 184-byte WinZip file containing one file (eicar.com above), which will test whether your anti-virus software detects the test virus in a zipped file.

Some software is distributed in a single zip file that contains other zip files. I recently noticed that Norton AntiVirus 5.0 does not detect a virus in this situation. Try it with your anti-virus software...

Download eicar2.zip to test your anti-virus software
This is a 252-byte WinZip file containing one file (eicar.zip above), which will test whether your anti-virus software detects the test virus in a double-zipped file.

Once you have downloaded these files, you might also want to e-mail them to yourself -- then you can see if your anti-virus software detects viruses in incoming e-mail attachments.

Remember, the EICAR test virus is not really a virus. It cannot do any harm to your system, even if your software does not detect it.

the test code for this virus is listed below and yoru antivirus sopftware should squak as soon as you click on this link, but if you want to see what the actual file looks like take a peek and tell your antivirus software to allow yoiu access to this one file, this one time. virus test page WARNING IF YOU GO TO THIS LINK YOUR ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE MIGHT SQUAWK, IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO TEST YOUR ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE DO NOT PROCEDED TO THIS PAGE! this page has only text on it and your antivirus software might not have a problem with it but we cant tell how your particular antivirus software will react to this text