How To Install maldet Malware Scanner on Linux Server

Maldet (Linux Malware Detect) is a free malware scanner for Linux systems developed by R-FX NETWORKS and it’s available under the GNU GPLv2 license.

Maldet generates unique signatures which, in combination with data retrieved from edge intrusion detection systems, are used to detect malware threats in Linux servers. It acts as both a malware scanner and removal utility which can run on a schedule (via cronjob) and/or on demand.

In this article we will show the steps to install maldet software on a linux server.

Important to Know Before Maldet Installation

Maldet is a quite a resource-demanding utility so, based on our own experience, we are providing you a list of things you need to know and do, prior start using maldet on your linux server.

1. Maldet should run on virtual or dedicated servers with minimum 4 Cores and 4 GB RAM. We have repeatedly tested maldet on virtual machines with lower specs and the result was the VM to crash
2. If you are concerned about your server’s resources when maldet is running we recommend that you configure maldet via cronjob to run, at least, on a weekly basis.
3. For a holistic, pro-active server security assurance, we recommend that you install and use maldet along with other security software (e.g. ossec, chrootkit, etc).

Steps to Install Maldet on Linux Server

Proceed to the next steps after you have established SSH connection to your server via root or a sudo account. For the purposes of this tutorial, commands are to be executed from “root” account on a Linux CentOS server. Commands for Ubuntu, Debian and other Linux distributions may differ.

Step 1. Download maldet from Official Source

Execute the following command to download the latest stable maldet script. We will use the -P parameter so the files is downloaded in /usr/local/src/ directory of our server.

root@localhost:~$ wget -P /usr/local/src/ http://www.rfxn.com/downloads/maldetect-current.tar.gz

Step 2. Extract maldet archive

Run the command below to extract the tar.gz file from Step 1.

root@localhost:~$ tar -zxvf /usr/local/src/maldetect-current.tar.gz

As soon as the files are extracted, a new folder will be created with name maldetect-* where * is the software version.

Step 3. Install maldet

Enter the directory of extracted archive and run the installer by executing the following command:

root@localhost:~$ cd maldetect-* && ./install.sh

Congratulations! You have installed maldet scanner is now installed on your linux server.

Ready to run maldet malware scanner for the first time? Follow our step-by-step guide on how to use maldet scanner on Linux >>