ClamAV: clamd.ctl file is not getting created on ubuntu

Question

I have ubuntu 16.04.6 version and I'm trying to install & run the clamdscan on it to check for antiviruses.

I've used the installation instructions as given in their website. ie.

sudo apt-get install clamav
sudo apt-get install clamav-daemon

The above 2 commands works fine. But when I try to download the definitions (which I'm assuming is mandatory after the above) by running the command

sudo freshclam

it fails throwing the following error:

^Clamd was NOT notified: Can't connect to clamd through /var/run/clamav/clamd.ctl: No such file or directory

According to this accepted answer, the file should get created after installing clamav-daemon but obviously that does not happen.

Solution 1

I faced this issue on my Ubuntu 20.04 LTS machine,

What I did was:

1. run sudo systemctl stop clamav-daemon.service
2. then run sudo rm /var/log/clamav/freshclam.log (sometimes it gets locked)
3. start the service sudo systemctl start clamav-daemon.service

to ensure everything is OK run sudo systemctl status clamav-daemon.service and the output should look something like this:

➜  ~ sudo systemctl status clamav-daemon.service
● clamav-daemon.service - Clam AntiVirus userspace daemon
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/clamav-daemon.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
    Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/clamav-daemon.service.d
             └─extend.conf
     Active: active (running) since Sun 2020-05-03 05:03:51 EEST; 4s ago
       Docs: man:clamd(8)
             man:clamd.conf(5)
             https://www.clamav.net/documents/
    Process: 6122 ExecStartPre=/bin/mkdir -p /run/clamav (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Process: 6124 ExecStartPre=/bin/chown clamav /run/clamav (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 6138 (clamd)
      Tasks: 1 (limit: 14203)
     Memory: 367.3M
     CGroup: /system.slice/clamav-daemon.service
             └─6138 /usr/sbin/clamd --foreground=true

May 03 05:03:51 user systemd[1]: Starting Clam AntiVirus userspace daemon...
May 03 05:03:51 user systemd[1]: Started Clam AntiVirus userspace daemon.

Now run sudo freshclam and check the log file (or console output)

Sun May  3 05:04:02 2020 -> --------------------------------------
Sun May  3 05:04:02 2020 -> ClamAV update process started at Sun May  3 05:04:02 2020
Sun May  3 05:04:02 2020 -> daily.cvd database is up to date (version: 25800, sigs: 2331970, f-level: 63, builder: raynman)
Sun May  3 05:04:02 2020 -> main.cvd database is up to date (version: 59, sigs: 4564902, f-level: 60, builder: sigmgr)
Sun May  3 05:04:02 2020 -> bytecode.cvd database is up to date (version: 331, sigs: 94, f-level: 63, builder: anvilleg)

Enjoy!

Solution 2

I found that after you run the:

freshclam 

And get this error:

Clamd was NOT notified: Can't connect to clamd through /var/run/clamav/clamd.ctl: No such file or directory

You just need to run restart for the demon:

service clamav-daemon restart

And then freshclam again and all works.

Solution 3

Add a sock file for ClamAV:

sudo touch /var/lib/clamav/clamd.sock
sudo chown clamav:clamav /var/lib/clamav/clamd.sock

Then, edit /etc/clamav/clamd.conf - uncomment this line:

LocalSocket /var/lib/clamav/clamd.sock

Save the file and restart clamav-daemon.service

Another error:

sudo freshclam

Downloading daily-25578.cdiff [100%]
Downloading daily-25579.cdiff [100%]
Downloading daily-25580.cdiff [100%]
Downloading daily-25581.cdiff [100%]
Downloading daily-25582.cdiff [100%]
Downloading daily-25583.cdiff [100%]
daily.cld updated (version: 25583, sigs: 1778105, f-level: 63, builder: raynman)
Downloading bytecode-331.cdiff [100%]
bytecode.cld updated (version: 331, sigs: 94, f-level: 63, builder: anvilleg)
Database updated (6344448 signatures) from database.clamav.net (IP: 104.16.219.84)
WARNING: Clamd was NOT notified: Can't connect to clamd through /run/clamav/clamd.ctl: No such file or directory

Add a sock file for ClamAV:

sudo touch /run/clamav/clamd.sock
sudo chown clamav:clamav /run/clamav/clamd.sock

sudo systemctl restart clamav-daemon.service
sudo freshclam

ClamAV update process started at Thu Sep 26 11:47:12 2019
main.cvd is up to date (version: 58, sigs: 4566249, f-level: 60, builder: sigmgr)
daily.cld is up to date (version: 25583, sigs: 1778105, f-level: 63, builder: raynman)
bytecode.cld is up to date (version: 331, sigs: 94, f-level: 63, builder: anvilleg)

That's it.

Solution 4

To reconfigure clamav run

dpkg-reconfigure clamav-daemon

Please read /usr/share/doc/clamav-daemon/README.Debian.gz for details

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Comments

[Nikhil Nanjappa]

Is there no better way to do this while running provision script on a server ? I mean, locally it could work. But i'm trying to run provision scripts to execute commands on AWS EC2 instance and opening and uncommenting a file on the fly in the server seems weird.

[JoKeR]

just type nano /etc/clamav/clamd.conf uncomment and save. This tutorial fixed an issue on my system.

[JoKeR]

if you still get another error /var/run/clamav/clamd.ctl no such file or directory create and give ownership to a sock file in that directory as well as specified in my answer.