ClamAV File Types and Target Types - ClamAV Documentation
Description: An open source malware detection toolkit and antivirus engine.

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# ClamAV File Types

ClamAV has two file typing systems for filtering signature matches: Target Types and File Types.

## Target Types

A Target Type is an integer that indicates which kind of file the signature will match against. Target Type notation was first created for the purposes writing efficient signatures. A signature with a target type of `0` will be run against every file type, and thus is not ideal. However, the Target Type notation is limited and it may be unavoidable.

Although the newer CL_TYPE string name notation has replaced the Target Type for some signature formats, many signature formats require a target type number.

This is the current list of available Target Types:

Target Type | Description
--- | ---
0 | any file
1 | Portable Executable, both 32-bit and 64-bit
2 | OLE2 containers, including specific macros. Primarily used by MS Office and MSI installation files
3 | HTML (normalized)
4 | Mail file
5 | Graphics
6 | ELF
7 | ASCII text file (normalized)
8 | Unused
9 | Mach-O files
10 | PDF files
11 | Flash files
12 | Java class files

> Important: HTML, ASCII, Javascript are all normalized:

> - ASCII - All lowercase.
> - HTML - Whitespace transformed to spaces, tags/tag attributes normalized, all lowercase.
> - Javascript - All strings are normalized (hex encoding is decoded), numbers are parsed and normalized, local variables/function names are normalized to `n001` format, argument to `eval()` is parsed as JS again, unescape() is handled, some simple JS packers are handled, output is whitespace normalized.

## File Types

ClamAV maintains it’s own file typing format and assigns these types using either:

- Evaluation of a unique sequence of bytes at the start of a file (File Type Magic).

- File type indicators when parsing container files.

  - For example: `CL_TYPE_SCRIPT` may be assigned to data contained in a PDF when the PDF indicates that a stream of bytes is “Javascript”

- File type determination based on the names or characteristics contained within the file.

  - For example: `CL_TYPE_OOXML_WORD` may be assigned to a Zip file containing files with specific names.

ClamAV File Types are prefixed with `CL_TYPE_`. The following is an exhaustive list of all current file types.

CL_TYPE | Description
--- | ---
`CL_TYPE_7Z` | 7-Zip Archive
`CL_TYPE_7ZSFX` | Self-Extracting 7-Zip Archive
`CL_TYPE_APM` | Disk Image - Apple Partition Map
`CL_TYPE_ARJ` | ARJ Archive
`CL_TYPE_ARJSFX` | Self-Extracting ARJ Archive
`CL_TYPE_AUTOIT` | AutoIt Automation Executable
`CL_TYPE_BINARY_DATA` | binary data
`CL_TYPE_BINHEX` | BinHex Macintosh 7-bit ASCII email attachment encoding
`CL_TYPE_BZ` | BZip Compressed File
`CL_TYPE_CABSFX` | Self-Extracting Microsoft CAB Archive
`CL_TYPE_CPIO_CRC` | CPIO Archive (CRC)
`CL_TYPE_CPIO_NEWC` | CPIO Archive (NEWC)
`CL_TYPE_CPIO_ODC` | CPIO Archive (ODC)
`CL_TYPE_CPIO_OLD` | CPIO Archive (OLD, Little Endian or Big Endian)
`CL_TYPE_CRYPTFF` | Files encrypted by CryptFF malware
`CL_TYPE_DMG` | Apple DMG Archive
`CL_TYPE_EGG` | ESTSoft EGG Archive, new in 0.102
`CL_TYPE_ELF` | ELF Executable (Linux/Unix program or library)
`CL_TYPE_GIF` | GIF Graphics File, new in 0.103
`CL_TYPE_GPT` | Disk Image - GUID Partition Table
`CL_TYPE_GRAPHICS` | Other graphics files; BMP, JPEG2000
`CL_TYPE_GZ` | GZip Compressed File
`CL_TYPE_HTML_UTF16` | Wide-Character / UTF16 encoded HTML
`CL_TYPE_HTML` | HTML data
`CL_TYPE_HWP3` | Hangul Word Processor (3.X)
`CL_TYPE_HWPOLE2` | Hangul Word Processor embedded OLE2
`CL_TYPE_INTERNAL` | Internal properties
`CL_TYPE_ISHIELD_MSI` | Windows Install Shield MSI installer
`CL_TYPE_ISO9660` | ISO 9660 file system for optical disc media
`CL_TYPE_JAVA` | Java Class File
`CL_TYPE_JPEG` | JPEG Graphics File, new in 0.103.1
`CL_TYPE_LNK` | Microsoft Windows Shortcut File
`CL_TYPE_MACHO_UNIBIN` | Universal Binary/Java Bytecode
`CL_TYPE_MACHO` | Apple/NeXTSTEP Mach-O Executable file format
`CL_TYPE_MAIL` | Email file
`CL_TYPE_MBR` | Disk Image - Master Boot Record
`CL_TYPE_MHTML` | MHTML Saved Web Page
`CL_TYPE_MSCAB` | Microsoft CAB Archive
`CL_TYPE_MSCHM` | Microsoft CHM help archive
`CL_TYPE_MSEXE` | Microsoft EXE / DLL Executable file
`CL_TYPE_MSOLE2` | Microsoft OLE2 Container file
`CL_TYPE_MSSZDD` | Microsoft Compressed EXE
`CL_TYPE_NULSFT` | NullSoft Scripted Installer program
`CL_TYPE_OLD_TAR` | TAR archive (old)
`CL_TYPE_ONENOTE` | Microsoft OneNote Document section file
`CL_TYPE_OOXML_HWP` | Hangul Office Open Word Processor (5.X)
`CL_TYPE_OOXML_PPT` | Microsoft Office Open XML PowerPoint
`CL_TYPE_OOXML_WORD` | Microsoft Office Open Word 2007+
`CL_TYPE_OOXML_XL` | Microsoft Office Open Excel 2007+
`CL_TYPE_PART_HFSPLUS` | Apple HFS+ partition
`CL_TYPE_PDF` | Adobe PDF document
`CL_TYPE_PNG` | PNG Graphics File, new in 0.103
`CL_TYPE_POSIX_TAR` | TAR archive
`CL_TYPE_PS` | Postscript
`CL_TYPE_PYTHON_COMPILED` | Python byte-compiled executable (.pyc)
`CL_TYPE_RAR` | RAR Archive
`CL_TYPE_RARSFX` | Self-Extracting RAR Archive
`CL_TYPE_RIFF` | Resource Interchange File Format container formatted file
`CL_TYPE_RTF` | Rich Text Format document
`CL_TYPE_SCRENC` | Files encrypted by ScrEnc malware
`CL_TYPE_SCRIPT` | Generic type for scripts (Javascript, Python, etc)
`CL_TYPE_SIS` | Symbian OS Software Installation Script Archive
`CL_TYPE_SWF` | Adobe Flash File (LZMA, Zlib, or uncompressed)
`CL_TYPE_TEXT_ASCII` | ASCII text
`CL_TYPE_TEXT_UTF16BE` | UTF-16BE text
`CL_TYPE_TEXT_UTF16LE` | UTF-16LE text
`CL_TYPE_TEXT_UTF8` | UTF-8 text
`CL_TYPE_TIFF` | TIFF Graphics File (Little or Big Endian), new in 0.103.1
`CL_TYPE_TNEF` | Microsoft Outlook & Exchange email attachment format
`CL_TYPE_UDF` | UDF (Universal Disk Format) Partition
`CL_TYPE_UUENCODED` | UUEncoded (Unix-to-Unix) binary file (Unix email attachment)
`CL_TYPE_XAR` | XAR Archive
`CL_TYPE_XDP` | Adobe XDP - Embedded PDF
`CL_TYPE_XML_HWP` | Hangul Word Processor XML (HWPML) Document
`CL_TYPE_XML_WORD` | Microsoft Word 2003 XML Document
`CL_TYPE_XML_XL` | Microsoft Excel 2003 XML Document
`CL_TYPE_XZ` | XZ Archive
`CL_TYPE_ZIP` | Zip Archive
`CL_TYPE_ZIPSFX` | Self-Extracting Zip Archive