Free Antivirus for Leopard?

[kuwxman]

I have a friend who is behind the times and is running 10.5.8. She came to me saying she thinks she has some type of Malware on her Mac. Said random webpages are opening up along with pop-up windows. She ran avast! and it found some corrupt files, but it wouldn't delete them; supposedly it failed every time.

Any suggestions....other than updating to Lion (which I already told her she needs to do)?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

ClamXav

Currently there are zero viruses affecting Mac OS X in public circulation, but there are other kinds of malware existing, that can infect your Mac.
But as long as you don't install software from unknown and untrusted sources, you are safe, as malware needs administrative permissions to run successfully, which means, you need to install the malware yourself, it can't install itself (one of the reasons, why a Mac OS X virus hasn't appeared yet).
To learn more about malware in Mac OS X and what steps can be taken to protect yourself, read the following F.A.Q.:

Mac Virus/Malware Info by GGJstudios
The above F.A.Q. includes the following topics:

• Malware terminology - What is the difference between viruses, worms, and Trojans?
• Antivirus apps
• What security steps should I take?
• What about sending files to Windows users?
• Why am I being redirected to other sites?
• Recent threats in the news

​

 

[kuwxman]

ClamXAV was my first suggestion. It requires 10.6 though so its a no go.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

ClamXAV was my first suggestion. It requires 10.6 though so its a no go.

It says on the page I linked to:

Compatible with Mac OS X 10.5, 10.6 and 10.7 Lion

And on the downloads page it says:

ClamXav 2.2.4 with ClamAV 0.97.4 backend - 30th March 2012

Requires at least Mac OS X 10.5 *

Unless you refer to the Mac App Store (MAS) version, but you don't need the MAS version, when you download directly from the site I linked to.

 

[kuwxman]

lol, those were her words. I'll shoot her the link to ClamXAV again.

 

[GGJstudios]

I have a friend who is behind the times and is running 10.5.8. She came to me saying she thinks she has some type of Malware on her Mac. Said random webpages are opening up along with pop-up windows. She ran avast! and it found some corrupt files, but it wouldn't delete them; supposedly it failed every time.

Any suggestions....other than updating to Lion (which I already told her she needs to do)?

ClamXav does run on Leopard, and while not impossible, it's very unlikely she has Mac malware on her Mac, despite what Avast says. Windows malware would have no effect on her Mac.

Have her check her DNS settings by reading: Why am I being redirected to other sites? Also check to see what ad-blockers she's running, and if she has blocked pop-up windows in her browser.

 

[kuwxman]

She was going to download ClamXAV when she got home. Having never seen this MB in person and now knowing it is on 10.5.8, Im very curious on what other software updates have/haven't been installed, lol.

Either way, she'll have a Lion disk this week to get up to speed.

 

[Gregg2]

I have a friend who is behind the times and is running 10.5.8.

Either way, she'll have a Lion disk this week to get up to speed.

I'm so jealous. I drive a 2002 automobile, live in a house built in 2003, and run a version of OSX that came out in 2006(?) although I got the OS in late 2007: Leopard!

 

[simsaladimbamba]

I'm so jealous. I drive a 2002 automobile, live in a house built in 2003, and run a version of OSX that came out in 2006(?) although I got the OS in late 2007: Leopard!

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard came out at the end of October in 2007, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger came out in April / May 2005, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard came out in late August 2009 and Lion came out last summer.