In need of a virus

Back when I was picking up on the requirements of the function I’m testing, one of the things that kinda stood out is the part wherein our program is supposed to handle virus-infected files.  My first thought was how exactly would I do that without getting into trouble with the sysads.  By the time I started testing, the third-party anti-virus program that we’ll be using hasn’t been finalized yet.  My dev provided a temporary function to simulate the detection of an infected file. Though eventually — and inevitably — I will have to try using our program with the selected anti-virus, and I will have simulate having an infected file.  When that time comes, I’ll probably use an EICAR virus.

I first heard about the EICAR virus when I asked my dev if he knew a safe way of simulating the said case.  I also heard one other team mate already had a pseudo-infected file already, but he said he had lost it when his PC’s anti-virus zapped it out of existence.  I’ve nearly forgotten about it until I came across a blog feed on testing virus recognition.

To get a pseudo-infected file, either:

(a) Download it from http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm, or

(b) Make one yourself by saving this 68-character string into a text file:  X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

Neat!