ClamAV "Permission denied": How to fix it

Tue, 27 Oct 2015 23:41:36 +0200

You got a ClamAV “Permission denied” message from your mail server? Learn how to resolve the issue.

The ClamAV “Permission denied” message

I recently set up a new Debian GNU/Linux Server with an MySQL based mail setup using Postfix for SMTP. My Postfix server uses Amavis and ClamAV to scan for viruses. I encountered a problem where ClamAV reported “Permission denied” in my log file (by default /var/log/mail.log).

(!)run_av (ClamAV-clamd) FAILED - unexpected , output="/var/lib/amavis/amavis " data-mce-bogus="1"&gt;tmp/amavis-20151026T222741-20271-mdUXn8gF/parts: lstat() failed: Permission denied. ERROR\n"
(!)ClamAV-clamd av-scanner FAILED: CODE(0x4976fa8) unexpected ,output="/var/lib/amavis/tmp/amavis-20151026T222741-20271-mdUXn8gF/parts: lstat() failed: Permission denied. ERROR\n" at (eval 96) line 905.
(!)WARN: all primary virus scanners failed, considering backups

Group membership

To resolve this issue you first have to ensure that the user running ClamAV (usually clamav) is a member of the amavis group.

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ClamAV "Permission denied": How to fix it

Group membership