ImunifyAV (and its premium version, Imunify360) is a powerful malware scanning and server security tool designed to protect your hosting server from viruses, malicious scripts, and other threats. If you’re using DirectAdmin, you can easily integrate ImunifyAV to keep your websites clean and secure.
What is ImunifyAV?
ImunifyAV by CloudLinux is a powerful and free malware scanner built for web hosting servers. It helps secure your DirectAdmin hosting, reseller hosting, and shared hosting environments by automatically scanning and reporting infected files, ensuring clean and reliable websites for you and your clients.
Upgrading to Imunify360 adds advanced features such as proactive defense, Web Application Firewall (WAF), intrusion detection, and reputation management.
Key Difference: ImunifyAV focuses on malware scanning and manual cleanup, while Imunify360 is a full security suite offering firewall, real-time protection, intrusion prevention, and patch management.
Install ImunifyAV on DirectAdmin
ImunifyAV comes as a plugin for DirectAdmin and can be installed directly from the command line.
wget https://repo.imunify360.cloudlinux.com/defence360/imav-deploy.sh
bash imav-deploy.shNote for Imunify360 Installation
Install ImunifyAV using
imav-deploy.shand Imunify360 withi360deploy.sh.wget https://repo.imunify360.cloudlinux.com/defence360/i360deploy.sh -O i360deploy.sh bash i360deploy.shImunifyAV is ideal for small or low-risk servers, while Imunify360 provides full protection for production, shared, or reseller hosting, reducing security risks and management overhead.
Once installed, log in to DirectAdmin as admin and go to:
- Extra Features -> ImunifyAV
You’ll now see the ImunifyAV interface integrated within DirectAdmin.
Access ImunifyAV Dashboard
Inside the ImunifyAV panel, you can:
- View malware scan results
- Check infected files
- Whitelist or delete infected files
- Start new scans
The interface shows infected files per domain and allows you to take cleanup actions directly from the panel.
Enable Manual Scanning in DirectAdmin
By default, ImunifyAV performs automatic background scans. However, you can also enable manual scanning so that users (or admins) can trigger scans anytime.
Access the Server via SSH:
- Log in to your server as the root user using SSH.
Enable Malware Scan for All Users:
- Run the following command to grant all users permission to perform malware scans:
imunify-antivirus feature-management enable --feature av
Verify User Permissions:
- To confirm that the feature is enabled for a specific user (e.g.,
username), execute:
imunify-antivirus feature-management check --feature av --users usernameReplace
usernamewith the actual username of the account you wish to check.
You can also choose:
- Scan all domains
- Scan home directory only
- Rescan infected files
Clean or Ignore Infected Files
After scanning, ImunifyAV will list all infected files. You can:
- Clean – Automatically remove or repair malicious code (available in ImunifyAV+ or Imunify360)
- Ignore – Whitelist the file if it’s a false positive
Common Issues & Fixes
| Issue | Solution |
|---|---|
| ImunifyAV not visible in DirectAdmin | Ensure plugin is enabled under “Plugin Manager” Log in to DirectAdmin → Admin Level. Go to Plugin Manager → ImunifyAV and activate it |
| Manual scan option missing | Recheck permission under “Allow users to start manual scans” To enable it, run the followint command: For Imunify360: imunify360-agent config update ‘{"PERMISSIONS": {"allow_malware_scan": true}}'For ImunifyAV: imunify-antivirus config update '{"PERMISSIONS": {"allow_malware_scan": true}}' |
| Scans are slow | Exclude backup folders and cache directories |
| Auto-clean not available | Available only in ImunifyAV+ or Imunify360 |