Wordfence Launches ‘High Performance’ Malware Scanner: Wordfence CLI

Wordfence has recently launched their open-source malware scanner ‘Wordfence CLI’ to provide a flexible malware detection tool for site owners, security administrators and operations teams.

Wordfence CLI is a multi-process malware scanner (written in Python) that is designed to have low memory overhead while still having the ability to scan large file systems for malware. 

In a recent tweet, Wordfence has officially launched their new malware scanner in WordCamp US held in National Harbor, Maryland.

The ‘high performance’ scanner has the ability to quickly detect malware and other harmful indicators that can compromise a hosting system. 

Consequently, it aims to provide the fastest PHP scanner with the highest detection rate in a scriptable tool that can work with other utilities in the Linux command line environment.

According to Wordfence in a release, the scanner “can be used to provide a second layer of detection for malware or provide an option for those who choose not to utilize a security plugin.”

Moreover, it is mainly focused on scalable, scriptable and high performance malware detection, rather than providing a firewall, and other security features that Wordfence Free and Paid plugin provides.

Reportedly, Wordfence highlighted the scanner’s flexibility with these options that enables users to utilize it in various ways:

• Look for all malware signature matches in each file.
• Immediately stop scanning if a malware is detected.
• Include or skip certain files or specific signatures from a scan.
• Choose a number of workers based on available CPUs.
• Format output in CSV, TSV, human readable and many more ways.

Wordfence continues to provide effective security and safety plugins in efforts to safeguard users against harmful indicators. They also cater to a wide range of users from technical site owners up to enterprise customers who need a second line of defense against malware.