No command line option to scan a single file?

[robains]

After searching and reading thru this:

https://support.malwarebytes.com/docs/DOC-1725

The mbamapi /scan ... doesn't support file path??

This seems VERY strange and is preventing me from incorporating MalwareBytes into my Internet Download Manager ... which does support other vendors.  I'd rather NOT change anti-virus/malware vendors to those that work with my Internet Download Manager ... but it seems I have no choice?

Searching history of MalwareBytes and it does seem this is a VERY common request among your customers, so I'm puzzled at why such a feature is missing?  Is it a concern over being able to scan a file on a network drive ... surely that could be detected and blocked internally?  So why the reason for not supporting command line individual file scans?

Cheers, Rob.

[Porthos]

1 hour ago, robains said:

So why the reason for not supporting command line individual file scans?

Are you using the standard stand alone version of Malwarebytes Premium ot the endpoint protection?

[robains]

1 hour ago, Porthos said:

Are you using the standard stand alone version of Malwarebytes Premium ot the endpoint protection?

I'm using stand alone MalwareBytes Premium 4.0.4.

 

[Porthos]

24 minutes ago, robains said:

I'm using stand alone MalwareBytes Premium 4.0.4.

The above version does not support CMD line. Or scanning network drives.

Malwarebytes is not designed to function like normal AV scanners and uses a new kind of scan engine that relies mostly on heuristics detection techniques rather than traditional threat signatures.  Malwarebytes is also designed to look in all the locations where malware is known to install itself/hide, so a full or custom scan shouldn't be necessary, especially on any sort of frequent basis (like daily), especially since the default Threat Scan/Quick Scan checks all loading points/startup locations, the registry, all running processes and threads in memory, along with all system folders, program folders and data folders as well as any installed browsers, caches and temp locations.  This also means that if a threat were active from a non-standard location, because Malwarebytes checks all threads and processes in memory, it should still be detected.  The only threat it *might* miss would be a dormant/inactive threat that is not actively running/installed on a secondary drive, however if the threat were executed then Malwarebytes should detect it.  Additionally, whenever a new location is discovered to be used by malware the Malwarebytes Research team adds that location dynamically to the outgoing database updates so the locations that are checked by the default Threat/Quick Scan in Malwarebytes can be changed on the fly by Research without requiring any engine or program version updates/upgrades.

If you need a flat file scanner to check archived data/drives, I would recommend using one of the many available free AV scanners such as Kaspersky's Virus Removal Tool, ESET's Free Virus Scan, or even the built in Windows Defender that ships with Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10.  Links to the first two scanners I mentioned can be found below:

https://www.kaspersky.com/downloads/thank-you/free-virus-removal-tool
https://www.eset.com/us/home/online-scanner/

Also,

Malwarebytes does not target script files during a scan.. That means MB will not target; JS, HTML, VBS, .CLASS, SWF, BAT, CMD, PDF, PHP, etc.

It also does not target documents such as; PDF, DOC, DOCx, XLS, XLSx, PPT, PPS, ODF, etc.

It also does not target media files;  MP3, WMV, JPG, GIF, etc.

Malwarebytes will detect files like these on execution only.

The above items are mostly what is contained on network drives anyway.

 

[robains]

1 hour ago, Porthos said:

The above version does not support CMD line.

And yet, if I right click on a file in Explorer, select "Scan with MalwareBytes" it will scan that file and only that file.  So the ability/facility is obviously available in MalwareBytes Premium 4.0.4 but for some strange reason isn't being made available via command line?

I'm not interested in Network drive scans, that wasn't my question, I know what it can do hence my paying customer status for several years.

Rob

 

[AdvancedSetup]

We have not supported command line scanning in the Consumer product since version 1.x which is now many years ago. This feature is only available to Business/Corporate customer products. There is no current plans to provide such functionality to the Consumer product.

Thank you

 

[Porthos]

5 hours ago, robains said:

So why the reason for not supporting command line individual file scans?

So putting aside most everything I stated previously, CMD line is a business only feature. 95% of the average consumer/home users never think about using CMD.

It also keeps free users from scripting functions that only the paid versions offer.

Malwarebytes main protections are on execution of a file and not by just scanning downloads.