Understanding SMART File Scan

The SMART File Scan tool detects and removes malware from a website’s filesystem for sites that support SFTP, FTP, or FTPS connections.

  • Comprehensive scanning — Scans all website files, including core files, themes, plugins, and custom files.

  • Automatic remediation — Cleans detected malware during the scan.

  • Detailed reporting — Provides detailed scan reports, including information on infected files, cleaned files, and suspicious files.

  • Scan history — Maintains a record of all previous scans for reference.

The results of the scan are displayed on the SMART File Scan page.

SMART File Scan details

Report summary

The summary of the scan results is displayed at the top of the SMART File Scan page.

The following table describes the components of the summary.

Component Description

Scan Time

The date and time when the scan was performed.

Files Scanned

The total number of files that were scanned during the scan.

Files Added by Customer

The number of files that were added since the last scan.

Files Modified by Customer

The number of files that were modified since the last scan.

Files Delisted By Customer

The number of files that were removed from the remote server or excluded from the scan with the exclusion tool.

Malicious Files Cleaned

The number of infected files that were successfully cleaned during the scan.

Malicious Files Found

The number of infected files that were found during the scan.

Suspicious Files Found

The number of files that were found to be suspicious during the scan.

Files Under Review

The number of files that are currently under review for potential infection.

Actions

View previous scans

Open earlier results.

Scan Now

Start a new scan.

View Files

View the list of files in a category.

Scan Results

Scan Results categorizes the scanned files into three categories:

  • Malicious Files — Confirmed malware-infected files.

  • Suspicious Files — Files flagged as suspicious but not confirmed.

  • Files Under Review — Files under investigation for possible infection.

Malicious Files

The following table describes the components of Malicious Files.

Field Description

Filename

The name of the file that was scanned.

Category

The type of malware or suspicious activity detected.

For more information on malware categories, see Types of malware.

Malware Cleaned

The number of malware instances fixed versus remaining (for example, 1/0 = 1 fixed, 0 remaining).

Malware Links

The number of malicious links that were successfully cleaned.

Actions

View

View detailed information about the file.

Export CSV

Export the list of infected files to a CSV file.

Clean All

Clean all infected files in the list.

Search bar

Search for specific filenames within the list.

Full Scan History

Full Scan History displays all previous scans performed on your website.

The following table describes the components of the Full Scan History section.

Column Description

Scan Date

The date and time when the scan was performed.

Scanned

The number of files scanned.

Added

The number of files that were added since the last scan.

Modified

The number of files that were modified since the last scan.

Delisted

The number of files that were removed from the remote server or excluded from the scan with the exclusion tool.

Malicious

The number of files that were found to be infected with malware.

Cleaned

The number of infected files that were successfully cleaned.

Review

The number of files that are currently under review for potential infection.

Sync Status

The status of scan completion.

The possible options are:

  • Partial — The scan was not able to finish, and will resume where it left off on the next scan.

  • Complete — The scan was able to finish successfully.

Types of malware

SMART File Scan can detect various types of malware by categorizing them into different categories and subcategories.

The categories of malware detected by SMART File Scan include:

  • Visitor-focused attacks — Malware targeting site visitors, such as phishing, redirects, and malicious links.

  • Remote control & backdoors — Malware including backdoor scripts, SQL backdoors, IRC bots, and proxy malware that allow attackers to control or exploit a website.

  • Code injection & exploits — Malware covering PHP, JavaScript, HTML, and iframe-based attacks that inject harmful code into a site.

  • Spam & SEO abuse — Malware including pharma spam, comment spam, SEO keyword stuffing, and mailer scripts.

  • Data theft & ransomware — Malware that steals sensitive data or encrypts files for ransom.

  • Site defacement & file manipulation — Malware that alters site appearance or deletes/modifies files (e.g., shell scripts, file managers).