Scanning uploaded documents to eliminate malicious content

FlexNet Manager Suite version 2020 R2

At several points in FlexNet Manager Suite, such as in the properties of purchases, contracts, assets, and licenses, you can reference supporting documents to help with record management. One available method for electronic documents is to upload the files to the application server, and save them with your license management data.

To prevent the accidental upload of malicious files, you now have the option of automatically virus-scanning all documents as each upload is attempted. You may either:

• Simply turn on the default scanning of documents provided by FlexNet Manager Suite. This uses ClamAV, because it provides an on-demand scanning capacity, and so can scan each document as an operator tries to attach it to the properties of any database object.
• Use your own preferred anti-virus scanning tool, provided that it supports on-demand use and can return values expected by FlexNet Manager Suite.

These settings are adjusted in the registry of your web application server. Full details are available in the following documents:

• If you manage your system upgrades (or installations) through scripts, you can find details of changes to your answer files in both the Installation and Upgrade documents for this release. These documents are available in PDF format through https://docs.flexera.com/, where you select the FlexNet Manager Suite On Premises product, and version 2020 R2.
• Details of configuration in the registry of your web application server are available in the new section of the 2020 R2 on-premises edition of FlexNet Manager Suite System Reference. This section, called Preventing Uploads of Malicious Files, also describes a sample PowerShell script which you can use to integrate the anti-virus tool of your choice.

When virus scanning is active, every document is checked at the time of upload.

If malicious content is found in a file, a red block of warning text appears in the web interface to alert the operator:

Antivirus scanning has quarantined this file as malicious. If you think this 
is a mistake, please contact your IT department for analysis, or contact 
Flexera Support.

Naturally, it is up to the operator (or perhaps your IT Department) to attend to the original file on the external device from which you attempted the upload – FlexNet Manager Suite has no capacity to remove files from external devices. On your web application server, the quarantine location is determined by your anti-virus tool. For ClamAV, the location is set by the --move=folder command-line parameter.