options for scanning windows 2000/2003 server

[slipperynick]

hey guys,

came across some older servers I need to get rid of but need to scan them for any malware/roots/viruses first. Are there any options for these older operating systems?

 

Thanks

[Amaroq_Starwind]

I'd just reimage them, personally. However, legacy versions of Malwarebytes which still run on Windows XP might be able to run on Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003, with some tweaking. With the amount of tweaking that would probably be needed however, it probably wouldn't be worth the effort if you're just going to get rid of the servers. Hence, reimage.

[slipperynick]

I couldnt find any old versions of Malwarebytes for this. Do you know of any other programs suitable for this? I do need to provide some reports of the machines in question before moving away from them. 

[Amaroq_Starwind]

Hmm... I'll have to dig around. I'll let you know if I can find anything.

If you're able to convert your hard disks for those servers into virtual hard drives, though, then you could probably run them inside of virtual machines. Maybe there's a modern anti-malware utility that can scan what's happening on a VM from the outside.

[Amaroq_Starwind]

Here we go:

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1065273-av-on-host-vm-or-both

Turns out there's actually a VM manager with built-in anti-virus capabilities for your VMs, and it supports the tried and true Kaspersky engine.

I know that it's not exactly an Anti-Malware system for Windows 2K and 2K3, but it's better than nothing IMHO.

Maybe in the future, Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection will have accommodations for protecting virtual machines.

[exile360]

Unfortunately there is no version of Malwarebytes that runs on Windows 2000 that I'm aware of and I've been around pretty much since the beginning when the very first version of Malwarebytes was in beta.  I'm not positive about 2K3 but you could give the legacy version for XP and Vista a try.  It can be downloaded here.

If that doesn't work then you could try the last 2.x version which can be found here, however be advised that older versions of Malwarebytes are incompatible with the modern threat signatures used in most of the detection database these days so its ability to detect threats will be greatly hindered (the same is true for any 1.x versions you might come across as well as older 3.x versions as the Research team tends to adapt to using newer database syntax/detection techniques more often as the new capabilities are developed as they are more efficient and effective against more threats).

Honestly though, if you don't need the data that's on the systems, I'd just wipe the drives, but if you do need it then I'd probably just scan it with a few free AV scanners to ensure that it's clean.  Malwarebytes is more for detection of modern active threats/infections anyway as the Research team tends to cull out old signatures for past threats that are no longer found in the wild so its usefulness in scanning older devices is rather limited.