EICAR test file - riskless method to test your antivirus and firewall solution

Disclaimer: There are more meaningful, and more advanced solutions to test your security solutions, but for a quick, simple, and riskless test, the upcoming test files are more than enough.

EICAR test file

The most common test file to test said solutions is the EICAR Anti-Virus Test File. The European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research (EICAR) and Computer Antivirus Research Organization (CARO) developed the test file, and is in the end a simple text file with a plain string of ASCII characters.

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

Most solutions will prevent you from downloading it or put it into quarantine, since it will be treated as a threat. That said, some providers - for example Malwarebytes [1][2] - refused to add fake malware / test files to their database since they don’t see any benefits.

More information and the download link can be found here.

Some additional information about the EICAR test file:

• Anatomy of the EICAR Antivirus Test File
• EICAR‘s TEST FILE HISTORY
• The Use and Misuse of Test Files in Anti-Malware Testing

Vendor specific test files

Various vendors have specific test files for their solutions, but I am not too familiar with them.

• Broadcom SOCAR cloud test file
• Cisco AMP test file
• FireEye test files
• McAfee
• Palo Alto Networks test file + Additional Malware Test Files
• Panda cloud test file

Just use your favorite search engine to look for + ‘test file’. For more advanced tests, reach out to the vendor of choice.