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Forum Discussion
AntiVirus No Longer Updating
Since 30th September, I have been getting an email from my RN214 advising me that the "Antivirus scanner definition file update failed due to download failure. Check your Internet connection." I ...
Just a thought, but would it be possible for users the build an up-to-date version of ClamAV from the source code on the ClamAV website?
Netgear took their library repositories down, and you would probably need those to build the package yourself.
Their source is in their GPL
No idea what Netgear might have changed though, whoever takes this on might have to compare this version with the one on ClamAV's github.
I'm guessing that the only thing I can do is to disable AntiVirus in the ReadyNAS GUI, to stop the database update failure emails?
Yes.
I have been giving this some more thought:
Does anyone know if the virus definitions file that the ReadyNAS, (used to), downloads each day is exactly the same as the file used for more up-to-date versions of ClamAV?
If so, then I should be able to install the latest ClamAV on my Linux desktop PC and copy the database file across to the appropriate place in the ReadyNAS file structure.
Would that work - or is it too simplistic?
Can anyone tell me what the name of the ClamAV database file is and where it resides within the Linux / ReadyNAS file system?
Alternatively, ClamAV provide a tool called "cvdupdate" which is for organisations with multiple ClamAV installations to regularly update and mirror the datadase for their internal use which maybe could be used?
Thoughts anyone?
Since it appears ClamAV has expressly disabled updates for the older version, there is most likely a reason for that. My guess would be that they made some sort of change in the format of the definitions file for later versions and don't want to have to keep distributing the old format one. If that's the case, a file designed for a newer version wouldn't work and at worst might stop your NAS from properly booting (though I think that's unlikely).
That may be the case, but looking at ClamAV's Version Support Matrix it looks like they have a policy in regularly stopping updates for older versions in a rolling pattern, (very roughly 4 years after that version is released), rather than a definite break between an old and new format?
https://docs.clamav.net/faq/faq-eol.html#version-support-matrix
but looking at ClamAV's Version Support Matrix it looks like they have a policy in regularly stopping updates for older versions in a rolling pattern, (very roughly 4 years after that version is released), rather than a definite break between an old and new format?
I don't know where you are trying to go with this.
Netgear distributed 0.100.2 until Nov 2021 (shortly after ClamAV stopped providing definition updates for it). The 6.10.6 release updated it to 0.103, which at the time was the newest long-term-stable release. Version 1.0 replaced 0.103 as the long-term-stable software in August 2022.
ClamAV deprecated 0.103 three years after release (in September 2024), and stopped providing definition updates for 0.103 in September 2025.
Version 1.0 is expected to reach EoL in Nov 2025, so ClamAV will start blocking definitions for it about a year from now.
Regrettably, Netgear never publicly announced the end of the ReadyNAS line, and customers never received emails announcing EoL. New product inventory dried up during Covid. That could have been a supply chain problem, but could also have been when the EoL decision was made. Whenever it happened, it's clear in hindsight that the decision was made before 2022 when version 1.0 replaced 0.103.
Ideally Netgear would have updated ClamAV to version 1.0 in 6.10.8 (shortly after ClamAV published it). But I suspect they no longer had the staffing needed to do that. Even if they had, it would only would have given us another year of AV updates.
If so, then I should be able to install the latest ClamAV on my Linux desktop PC and copy the database file across to the appropriate place in the ReadyNAS file structure.
Would that work - or is it too simplistic?No idea if the old software would work with the newest ClamAV definitions. My guess is that ClamAV has multiple versions of the definitions on their servers. If that guess is correct, then the definition database for 1.4 wouldn't be compatible.
From a practical perspective, in principle another user could put 1.4 in a docker container and then install docker (+ the ClamAV container) on the NAS. Though installing docker has its own challenges, and no one has provided an OS-6 app for some years now.
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