Kaspersky Security 11.x for Windows Server

Online storage file scanning

June 10, 2022

ID 175416

About cloud files

Kaspersky Security for Windows Server can interact with Microsoft OneDrive cloud files. The application supports the new OneDrive Files On-Demand feature.

Kaspersky Security for Windows Server does not support other online storages.

OneDrive Files On-Demand helps you access all your OneDrive files without having to download all of them and use storage space on your device. You can download files to your hard drive when you need to.

When the OneDrive Files On-Demand feature is on, you see status icons next to each file in the Status column in File Explorer. Each file has one of the following statuses:

cloudfile_online This status icon indicates that the file is only available online. Online-only files are not physically stored on your hard drive. You can't open online-only files when your device is not connected to the Internet.

cloudfile_local This status icon indicates that a file is locally available. This happens when you open an online-only file and it downloads to your device. You can open a locally available file anytime, even without Internet access. To clear up space you can change the file back to cloudfile_online online-only.

cloudfile_alwaysavail This status icon indicates that a file is stored on your hard drive and is always available.

Cloud file scanning

Kaspersky Security for Windows Server can only scan cloud files that are stored locally on a protected device. Such OneDrive files have the cloudfile_alwaysavail and cloudfile_local statuses. The cloudfile_online files are skipped during scanning, since they are not physically located on the protected device.

Kaspersky Security for Windows Server does not automatically download cloudfile_online files from the cloud during the scanning, even if they are included in the scan scope.

Cloud files are processed by several Kaspersky Security for Windows Server tasks in various scenarios depending on the task type:

  • Real-time cloud file scanning: you can add folders containing cloud files to the Real-Time File Protection task protection scope. A file is scanned when it is accessed by the user. If a cloudfile_online file is accessed by the user, it is downloaded, becomes locally available, and its status changes to cloudfile_local. This allows the file to be processed by the Real-Time File Protection task.
  • On-demand cloud file scanning: you can add folders containing cloud files to the On-Demand Scan task's scan scope. The task scans files with the cloudfile_alwaysavail and cloudfile_local statuses. If any cloudfile_online files are found in the scope, they will be skipped during scanning and an informational event will be recorded in the task log, indicating that the scanned file is only a placeholder for a cloud file and does not exist on a local drive.
  • Application Control rule generation and usage: you can create allowing and denying rules for cloudfile_alwaysavail and cloudfile_local files using the Rule Generator for Applications Launch Control task. The Applications Launch Control task applies the Default Deny principle and created rules to process and block cloud files.

    The Applications Launch Control task blocks the start of all cloud files, irrespective of their status. The cloudfile_online files are not included in the rule generation scope by the application, as they are not physically stored on your hard drive. Since allowing rules cannot be created for such files, they are subject to the Default Deny principle.

When a threat is detected in a OneDrive cloud file, the application applies the action specified in the settings of the task performing the scanning. Thus, the file may be removed, disinfected, moved to quarantine, or backed up.

Changes to local files are synchronized with the copies stored on OneDrive in accordance with the principles outlined in the relevant Microsoft OneDrive documentation.

Did you find this article helpful?
What can we do better?
Thank you for your feedback! You're helping us improve.
Thank you for your feedback! You're helping us improve.