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If there is a question which you feel should be answered here, please just email me it at pldaniels@pldaniels.com

• What is SignatureDB?
• Who created SignatureDB?
• Is SignatureDB an AntiVirus program?
• Can SignatureDB be extended into an AntiVirus program?
• Is there a mailling list?
• What do I need to use SignatureDB?
• How can I keep my SignatureDB up to date?
• How can I contribute to SignatureDB?
• Damn it's a slow program to scan!

• What is SignatureDB?

  SignatureDB is actually two components, a signature database which is available on the internet, and a signatureID program, which scans your files.

  You can in effect consider SDB/ID in the same way you consider and use an AntiVirus program, but SDB/ID are aimed at a slightly different sector of the industry.

  SDB/ID was designed with the purpose of scanning for common emails such as Virus-Hoax's chain-letters, header exploits and other annoyances which aren't specifically viruses.

• Who created SignatureDB?

  SignatureDB was created by Paul L Daniels, and it currently still maintained by him. Paul L Daniels is also the creator of numerous other OpenSource projects, including Inflex, ripMIME, pppDropper and jSlice.

• What do I need to use SignatureDB?
• Is SignatureDB an AntiVirus program?

  Not as it currently stands. It does not have a sufficiently complete virus signature database to possibly offer any form of comprehensive defense.

• Can SignatureDB be extended into an AntiVirus program? Yes, if we (The OpenSource community) can collate together and create a database of signatures, it'll be very useful towards turning SDB/ID into a viable AntiVirus program.

• Is there a mailling list?

  Yes, you can join by sending a blank email to here

• How can I keep my SignatureDB up to date?

  The latest signatures can be downloaded using the sigdupdate program, which will use the 'wget' utility to retrieve the database from the SignatureDB server. As it uses standard port-80, there typically will be no special filewall-setup's required in order to get your updates.

• How can I contribute to SignatureDB?

  The most needed contribution needed at this point in time is more signatures! The signature database is pretty useless without up-to-date signatures.

• Damn it is a slow program to scan!

  Yes, it doesn't yet compare in speed to things like the commercial AntiVirus scanners, but that is not the primary concern for this project at this point in time. Given that the core focus of SignatureDB is to deal with email-sized text files, which are rarely more than a couple of hunderd KB, hence the speed difference is not really noticed. Of course, should you happen to decide to scan your entire /var/spool/mail directory, then you will probably have a fair wait on your hand.
  However, if you have a patch (excluding dealing with /dev/null ;) which can substantially improve the speed, the feel free to post it to me.