How to configure the Critical Areas Scan

When performing a critical areas scan, the Kaspersky application can scan boot sectors, startup objects, process memory, and kernel memory.

Upon detecting malware, the application can remove the infected file and terminate the malware process started from this file.

In the application interface, you can perform a Critical Areas Scan using the Critical Areas Scan task.

The application interface lets you:

Start or stop the Critical Areas Scan task.
Monitor the progress of the Critical Areas Scan task.
View pop-up notifications about the status of the Critical Areas Scan task; in these notifications, you can click the Open Reports link to navigate to application component reports and scan task results.
View the report of the Critical Areas Scan task.
The result of the Critical Areas Scan task is displayed in the report in the Scan tasks section.

On the command line, you can perform a critical areas scan of the operating system of a protected device using the Critical Areas Scan predefined task (Critical_Areas_Scan).

You can manually start, stop, pause, or resume this task and configure the task run schedule.

On the command line, you can view information about detected threats and check the current status of the task.

The Critical Areas Scan task is not running by default. The task starts with default settings listed in Appendix 3. You can modify task settings.

You must modify the settings of a task before starting the task.

By modifying the settings of the Critical Areas Scan task, you can:

Select the operating system objects to be scanned. Scanning of boot sectors, process memory and kernel memory, startup objects and archives is enabled by default. By default, files are not scanned during the critical areas scan.
Limit the size of an object to be scanned and the duration of the object scan.
Select the actions to be performed by the application on the infected objects.
Configure exclusions of objects from scans:
- by name or mask
- by the name of the threats detected in the objects
Enable or disable global exclusions and File Threat Protection exclusions when scanning.
Enable the logging of information about scanned non-infected objects, about scanning objects in archives, and about unprocessed objects.
Configure the use of the heuristic analyzer and iChecker technology during a scan.
Limit the set of devices whose boot sectors need to be scanned.
Configure scan scopes and scan exclusion scopes.

To configure the task schedule using a configuration file:

Output the task settings to the configuration file: kfl-control --get-schedule
Edit the values of the necessary settings in the configuration file and save the changes.
Execute the command:
kfl-control --set-schedule <task ID/name> --file <configuration file path> [--json]

All values of the settings for the task run schedule defined in the file will be imported into the application.

To modify individual task schedule settings on the command line:

kfl-control --set-schedule 4 <setting name>=<setting value> [<setting name>=<setting value>]

The values of the specified settings for the task run schedule are modified.

To stop the Critical Areas Scan task and enable the output of current events related to this task, run the following command:

kfl-control --stop-task 4 -W

To start the Critical Areas Scan task, enable the output of current events related to this task, and display the progress of the task, run the following command:

kfl-control --start-task 4 [-W] [--progress]

The Critical Areas Scan task starts with default settings listed in Appendix 3.

You can display the current values of the task settings in one of the following ways:

To the console using the task settings output command: kfl-control --get-settings 4 [--json]
To a configuration file using the task settings output command: kfl-control --get-settings 4 --file <path to configuration file> [--json]

If you need to modify the settings of the Critical Areas Scan task, you can:

Modify all task settings using the configuration file. To do so:
1. Output the task settings to the configuration file: kfl-control --get-settings 4 [--json]
  A configuration file with the current task settings is generated.
2. Edit task settings in the generated configuration file by choosing values from the following table.
3. If necessary, add a scan scope to the configuration file or remove scan scopes that you want to skip from the configuration file.
  To add a scan scope, add a [ScanScope.item_#] section to the configuration file and specify the values of its settings by choosing them from the table below.
  
  To delete a scan scope, delete the [ScanScope.item_#] section corresponding to the unwanted scan scope along with its settings from the configuration file.
4. If necessary, add an exclusion scope.
  To add an exclusion scope, add an [ExcludedFromScanScope.item_#] section to exclude files and directories and specify its settings by choosing them from the table below.
5. Save the configuration file.
6. Run the following command: kfl-control --set-settings 4 --file <configuration file path> [--json]
Modify individual task settings using command line options. To do so:
1. Modify settings: kfl-control --set-settings 4 <setting name>=<setting value> [<setting name>=<setting value>]
2. If necessary, add a scan scope using the kfl-control --set-settings 4 --add-path <path to directory with objects to scan> command or delete a scan scope using the kfl-control --set-settings 4 --del-path <path to directory with objects to scan> command.
3. If necessary, add an exclusion scope using the kfl-control --set-settings 4 --add-exclusion <path to directory with objects to exclude> command or delete an exclusion scope using the kfl-control --set-settings 4 --del-exclusion <path to directory with objects to exclude> command.
Restore default task settings: kfl-control --set-settings 4 --set-to-default

For detailed instructions on how to modify the settings of application tasks, see the How to manage task settings on the command line section.

The following table describes all the settings of the Critical Areas Scan task and their values.

Critical Areas Scan task settings

Setting

Description

Values

ScanFiles

Enables file scan.

Yes — Scan files.

No (default value) — Do not scan files.

ScanBootSectors

Enables boot sector scans.

Yes (default value) — Scan boot sectors.

No — Do not scan boot sectors.

ScanComputerMemory

Enables process memory and kernel memory scans.

Yes (default value) — Scan process memory and kernel memory.

No — Do not scan process memory and kernel memory.

ScanStartupObjects

Enables startup object scans.

Yes (default value) — Scan startup objects.

No — Do not scan startup objects.

ScanArchived

Enables scanning of archives (including SFX self-extracting archives).

The application scans the following archives: .zip; .7z*; .7-z; .rar; .iso; .cab; .jar; .bz; .bz2; .tbz; .tbz2; .gz; .tgz; .arj. The list of supported archive formats depends on the application databases being used.

Yes (default value) — Scan archives. If the FirstAction=Recommended value is specified, then, depending on the archive type, the application deletes either the infected object or the entire archive that contains the threat.

No — Do not scan archives.

ScanSfxArchived

Enables scanning of self-extracting archives only (archives that contain an executable extraction module).

Yes (default value) — Scan self-extracting archives.

No — Do not scan self-extracting archives.

ScanMailBases

Enables scanning email databases of Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, The Bat, and other mail clients.

Yes — Scan files of email databases.

No (default value) — Do not scan files of email databases.

ScanPlainMail

Enables scanning of plain text email messages.

Yes — Scan plain text email messages.

No (default value) — Do not scan plain text email messages.

SizeLimit

Maximum size of an object to be scanned (in megabytes). If the object to be scanned is larger than the specified value, the application skips this object.

0–999999

0 — The application scans objects of any size.

Default value: 0.

TimeLimit

Maximum object scan duration (in seconds). The application stops scanning the object if it takes longer than the time specified by this setting.

0–9999

0 — The object scan time is unlimited.

Default value: 0.

FirstAction

Selection of the first action to be performed by the application on the infected objects.

Disinfect — The application tries to disinfect an object and save a copy of it to Backup. If disinfection fails (for example, if the type of object or the type of threat in the object cannot be disinfected), then the application leaves the object unchanged. If the first action is Disinfect, it is recommended to specify a second action using the SecondAction setting.

Remove — The application removes the infected object after creating a backup copy of it.

Recommended (perform recommended action) — The application automatically selects and performs an action on the object based on information about the threat detected in the object. For example, the Kaspersky application immediately removes Trojans because they do not incorporate themselves into other files and therefore they do not need to be disinfected.

Skip — The application does not try to disinfect or delete infected objects. Information about the infected object is logged.

Default value: Recommended.

SecondAction

Selection of the second action to be performed by the application on the infected objects. The application performs the second action if the first action fails.

The possible values of the SecondAction setting are the same as those of the FirstAction setting.

If Skip or Remove is selected as the first action, the second action does not need to be specified. It is recommended to specify two actions in all other cases. If you have not specified the second action, the application applies Skip as the second action.

Default value: Skip.

UseExcludeMasks

Enables exclusion of the objects specified by the ExcludeMasks.item_# setting from the scan.

Yes — Exclude objects specified by the ExcludeMasks.item_# setting from the scan.

No (default value) — Do not exclude objects specified by the ExcludeMasks.item_# setting from the scan.

ExcludeMasks.item_#

Excludes objects from being scanned by name or mask. You can use this setting to exclude an individual file from the specified scan scope by name or exclude several files at once using masks in SHELL format.

Before specifying a value for this setting, make sure that the UseExcludeMasks setting is enabled.

The default value is not defined.

Example:

UseExcludeMasks=Yes

ExcludeMasks.item_0000=eicar1.*

ExcludeMasks.item_0001=eicar2.*

UseExcludeThreats

Enables exclusion of objects containing the threats specified by the ExcludeThreats setting from scans.

Yes — Exclude objects containing the threats specified by the ExcludeThreats.item_# setting from the scan.

No (default value): do not exclude objects containing the threats specified by the ExcludeThreats.item_# setting from the scan.

ExcludeThreats.item_#

Excludes objects from scans by the name of the threats detected in them. Before specifying a value for this setting, make sure that the UseExcludeThreats setting is enabled.

In order to exclude an object from scans, specify the full name of the threat detected in this object – the string containing the application's decision that the object is infected.

For example, you may be using a utility to collect information about your network. To keep the application from blocking it, add the full name of the threat contained in it to the list of threats excluded from scans.

You can find the full name of the threat detected in an object in the application log or on the website https://threats.kaspersky.com.

The setting value is case-sensitive.

The default value is not defined.

Example:

UseExcludeThreats=Yes

ExcludeThreats.item_0000=EICAR-Test-*

ExcludeThreats.item_0001=?rojan.Linux

UseGlobalExclusions

Enables global exclusions for scanning.

Yes (default value) — Use the global exclusions.

No — Do not use global exclusions.

UseOASExclusions

Enables File Threat Protection exclusions for scanning.

Yes (default value) — Use File Threat Protection exclusions.

No — do not use File Threat Protection exclusions.

ReportCleanObjects

Enables logging of information about scanned objects that the application reports as not being infected.

You can enable this setting, for example, to make sure that a particular object was scanned by the application.

Yes — Log information about non-infected objects.

No (default value) — Do not log information about non-infected objects.

ReportPackedObjects

Enables logging of information about scanned objects that are part of compound objects.

You can enable this setting, for example, to make sure that an object within an archive has been scanned by the application.

Yes — Log information about scanned objects within archives.

No (default value) — Do not log information about scanned objects within archives.

ReportUnprocessedObjects

Enables logging of information about objects that have not been processed for some reason.

Yes — Log information about unprocessed objects.

No (default value) — Do not log information about unprocessed objects.

UseAnalyzer

Enables heuristic analysis.

Heuristic analysis helps the application to detect threats even before they become known to virus analysts.

Yes (default value) — Enable Heuristic Analyzer.

No — Disable Heuristic Analyzer.

HeuristicLevel

Specifies the heuristic analysis level.

You can specify the heuristic analysis level. The heuristic analysis level sets the balance between the thoroughness of searches for threats, the load on the operating system's resources, and the scan duration. The higher the heuristic analysis level, the more resources and time are required for scanning.

Light — The least thorough scan with minimum load on the system.

Medium — A medium heuristic analysis level with a balanced load on the system.

Deep — The most thorough scan with maximum load on the system.

Recommended (default value) — The recommended value.

UseIChecker

Enables usage of the iChecker technology.

Yes (default value) — Enable use of the iChecker technology.

No — Disable use of the iChecker technology.

DeviceNameMasks.item_#

List of device names. The application will scan boot sectors of these devices.

The setting value cannot be empty. At least one device name mask must be specified to run this task.

AllObjects – scan boot sectors of all devices.

<device name mask> – Scan boot sectors of the devices whose names match the specified mask.

Default value: /** – any set of characters in the device name, including the / character.

The [ScanScope.item_#] section contains the following settings:

AreaDesc

Description of the scan scope, which contains additional information about the scan scope. The maximum length of the string specified using this setting is 4096 characters.

Default value: All objects.

Example:

AreaDesc="Mail bases scan"

UseScanArea

Enables scans of the specified scope. To run the task, enable scans of at least one scope.

Yes (default value) — Scan the specified scope.

No — Do not scan the specified scope.

AreaMask.item_#

Scan scope limitation. Within the scan scope, the application scans only the files that are specified using the masks in SHELL format.

If this setting is not specified, the application scans all the objects in the scan scope. You can specify several values for this setting.

The default value is * (scan all objects).

Example:

AreaMask.item_<item number>=*doc

Path

Path to the directory with objects to be scanned.

<path to local directory> — Scan objects in the specified directory.

Shared:NFS — Scan the device file system resources that are accessible via the NFS protocol.

Shared:SMB – Scan the device file system resources that are accessible via the Samba protocol.

Mounted:NFS – Scan the remote directories mounted on a device using the NFS protocol.

Mounted:SMB – Scan the remote directories mounted on a device using the Samba protocol.

AllRemoteMounted – Scan all remote directories mounted on the device using the Samba and NFS protocols.

AllShared – Scan all the device file system resources that are accessible via the Samba and NFS protocols.

<file system type> — Scan all the resources of the specified device file system.

The [ExcludedFromScanScope.item_#] section contains the following settings:

AreaDesc

Description of the scan exclusion scope, which contains additional information about the exclusion scope.

The default value is not defined.

UseScanArea

Excludes the specified scope from scans.

Yes (default value) — Exclude the specified scope.

No — Do not exclude the specified scope.

AreaMask.item_#

Limitation of scan exclusion scope. In the exclusion scope, the application excludes only the files that are specified using masks in SHELL format.

If this setting is not specified, the application excludes all the objects in the exclusion scope. You can specify several values for this setting.

Default value: * (exclude all objects)

Path

Path to the directory with objects to be excluded.

<path to local directory> — Exclude objects in the specified directory (including subdirectories) from scans. You can use masks to specify the path.

In order to optimize the operation of scan tasks, it is recommended to add the path with snapshots mounted by the system in the read-only mode to the exclusions for the systems with the btrfs file system and enabled active snapshots. For example, for the systems based on SUSE/OpenSUSE, you can add the following exclusion /.snapshots/*/snapshot/.

Mounted:NFS– Exclude the remote directories mounted on a device using the NFS protocol from scan.

Mounted:SMB – Exclude the remote directories mounted on a device using the Samba protocol from scan.

AllRemoteMounted – Exclude all remote directories mounted on the device using the Samba and NFS protocols from scan.

<file system type> — Exclude all the resources of the specified device file system from scans.

Remote directories are excluded from scanning by the application only if they were mounted before the task was started. Remote directories mounted after the task is started are not excluded from scanning.

Article ID: 287129, Last review: Apr 9, 2025

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