AntiVirus 1.5 released

Stefan Kalscheuer on 14. November 2023

Today we’d like to announce the release of 1.5.0. Half a year has passed since the latest maintenance update 1.4.4. As the version increment indicates, we have few, at least minor features on board this time.

New look for manual theme scans

We cleaned up things, separated the user interface for manual scans from the settings and have taken this opportunity to rework and modernize it.

The results are now displayed on tabular form in a familiar WordPress look. In addition to colors there is also visualization in form of text. The background functionality remains unchanged.

Worth to mention at this point that this modernization removes support for the Internet Explorer 11 – which should already have been the case for many functions since WordPress 5.8. This affects the settings and manual scans. The automatic, daily check is independent of this.

Safe Browsing – bring your own API key

Back in Version 1.4.3 (May 2021), we announced that we would discontinue support for the build-in, shared API key when using Google Safe Browsing. After what we consider to be an appropriate transition period, we have now implemented this so that a custom key is required in order to use this function. If you did not already enter one, it can be created free of charge in most cases and entered in the plugin settings. For further information on this, simply follow the documentation and the links on the settings page.

Minor improvements under the hood

A few less obvious changes are also included. Warnings when using PHP 8.1 or above are now gone. And the plugin is tested up to WordPress 6.4.

Google Safe Browsing in AntiVirus

Sergej Müller on 16. September 2014

This post originally appeared in Sergej Müller’s Google+ profile (in German) and is no longer accessible there. It’s now kept here by the Pluginkollektiv.

The AntiVirus plugin for WordPress has an option to perform malware detection using Google Safe Browsing. Google Safe Browsing API is used for this purpose.

The daily limit (free use) is 10,000 requests/day, which was still within the limits at the beginning, but is now generously exceeded. Now I am (once again) facing the (re)financing of one of my plugins and would not like to bear the costs myself (when the time comes and Google asks me to pay, which is also legitimate).

If need be, I would of course step in financially (with the number of requests always increasing, see graph), as is already the case with Antispam Bee. But it is not really nice 😉

Ideas? Suggestions?

New Features in AntiVirus for WordPress

Sergej Müller on 8. May 2013

This post originally appeared in Sergej Müller’s Google+ profile (in German) and is no longer accessible there. It’s now kept here by the Pluginkollektiv.

I think everyone has seen it on the web: The notice in the browser or in Google search results indicating an infected website – the browser or even Google warn us not to visit certain pages on the web, as they are most likely to be contaminated with malware.

This technique is called Google Safe Browsing – Google is able to detect virus-infected pages quite reliably and warn visitors through such notices.

If the owner of an infected website is logged into Google Webmaster Tools, Google sends a timely notification with appropriate warning and assistance.

Now I have implemented an option in the AntiVirus plugin for WordPress, which was created in cooperation with Google: The plugin asks Google Safe Browsing daily whether the (own) website with installed plugin is free of infections. If one day it is (hopefully it will never happen) and Google has identified malware in the blog, the AntiVirus plugin sends an email to the blog administrator or to the person whose email address is entered in plugin settings.

This way, you will receive the notification even if you are not registered with the website in Webmaster Tools or do not have your own account. This way you can react quickly if your blog is “blocked” by Google.

The AntiVirus plugin version 1.3.4 is still available for free and ad-free download or update.

Improvements to the code, documentation and GUI are also part of the feature set.

Happy about reviews, Flattr or just thanks 😉

AntiVirus 1.1 for WordPress released

Sergej Müller on 18. August 2011

This post originally appeared in Sergej Müller’s Google+ profile (in German) and is no longer accessible there. It’s now kept here by the Pluginkollektiv.

Since last night an update for the WordPress plugin AntiVirus is available.

All changes can be found in the changelog. One of them: correction of a query that could cause the scan to stall.

Important to note are the upgraded minimum requirements: WordPress 2.8 and PHP 5.