cPanel is by far the most popular web hosting control panel in the market with over 85% market share. Also, it is safe to say that cPanel is the most important piece of software a hosting provider needs to manage all the customer-related processes.
cPanel’s popularity also attracts hackers who are trying new methods every day to to breach the system, which makes cPanel security is a top priority for every web hosting service provider that uses cPanel. In this article, we will take a closer look at the antivirus solutions for cPanel that can help service providers to protect themselves against attacks and virus/malware.
ClamAV
ClamAV’s cPanel security solution allows users to scan mail folders, the entire home directory, public FTP, and web directory. When it identifies a security threat, it prompts the user to allow them to perform an action. ClamAV is also capable of displaying the number of files that are scanned and that will be scanned, and a list of detected malicious software.
However, when compared to other antivirus software, ClamAV can’t meet the expectations. Various researches show that its Windows solutions can only detect less than 20% of malware and its Linux solution can only detect less than 70% of malware. There are various third-party companies that offer malware signatures for ClamAV to increase its detection rate for PHP files, however, they also come with a hefty price.
As a free and open-source antivirus solution, ClamAV lacks professional support and it can be difficult to find the online sources you need from the community websites. ClamAV focuses on mail gateway protection mostly and lacks many other important features a user may need. Its interface also looks outdated and can be confusing sometimes.
| Pros | Cons | |
|---|---|---|
| ✔ Scans remote files | ✘ Lacks configuration options to select the types of files to scan | |
| ✔ Third-party integrations | ✘ Features should be configured in the CLI | |
| ✔ Can detect potentially unwanted applications (ie cryptocurrency miners) | ✘ Cannot clean up websites without breaking them | |
| ✘ Only detects 10% of the malware that Imunify detects |
ImunifyAV
ImunifyAV is the free version of CloudLinux‘s popular Linux server antivirus, ImunifyAV+. CloudLinux has over 10 years of experience in the field and is trusted by thousands of organizations around the globe. There is also a comprehensive version Imunify360, which provides advanced Linux server security solutions.
ImunifyAV is one of the most capable antivirus scanners on the market and can detect any type of malicious file, including backdoors, web-shells, viruses, hacker tools, ‘blackhat SEO’ scripts, phishing pages, and others. ImunifyAV’s hosting panel integration support both cPanel and Plesk.
Although it is a free antivirus forever, ImunifyAV offers 24/7 professional technical support and many other useful features. CloudLinux’s free cPanel antivirus solution offers real-time malware processing, scheduled and on-demand scanning, database scanner, incident reporting, automation via command-line, and API 3rd-party solution integration.
| Pros | Cons | |
|---|---|---|
| ✔ Scans entire server | ✘ Lacks popular third-party integrations | |
| ✔ One-click on-demand malware scanning | ✘ One-click Malware Clean-up feature comes with the subscription model | |
| ✔ Malware database scanner | ||
| ✔ Easy configuration for scheduled scans | ||
| ✔ Saves previous scans | ||
| ✔ Incident Reporting via UI and API | ||
| ✔ Automation via Command-Line and API3rd-Party Solution Integration (CSF/lfd/cpHulk) | ||
| ✔ 24/7 Professional Technical Support |
We can easily say that ImunifyAV is the best free cPanel antivirus on the market. Created by an experienced team in security, it is getting updated frequently, is easy to use, and contains all the features a web admin can need.
cPanel users can easily install ImunifyAV by using the preferred SSH console application and with root access. Users can start the installation easily with these commands:
To install ImunifyAV using command line:
wget https://repo.imunify360.cloudlinux.com/defence360/imav-deploy.sh -O imav-deploy.sh bash imav-deploy.sh