Request	Value
Method	POST
URL	https://api.metadefender.com/v4/file
Throttled	Yes

Summary

Scanning a file starts with uploading a file to MetaDefender Cloud to initiate the scan. Although we are trying to keep scanning very fast, scanning using 30+ engines takes many seconds to many minutes depending on types of files, and the load.

Scan by long polling

Scanning a file by long polling consists of 3 steps:

initiate Scan request by uploading a file
retrieve scan report using the "data_id" (found in the response of this endpoint)
perform long polling by "data_id" until scanning finishes

Scan with Callback URL

As an alternative, there is a callback mechanism that notifies the API user when the scanning has finished. Just specify the "callbackurl" header with the desired URL where we will send the results once finished.

The response type will be 'content-type': 'application/json' and the user agent sent will be 'user-agent': 'opswat metadefender cloud' to easily identify traffic. Please refer to our webhook endpoint to see the status of a callback response.

Request

Header Parameters

	Description	Allowed Values	Required
apikey	Gives rights to use the endpoint (token authentication) (API Authentication Mechanisms)	apikey	YES
filename	Name of files to preserve extension and metadata during scan		NO
archivepwd	If the submitted file is a password-protected archive		NO
samplesharing	Only working for paid users - allow file scans to be shared or not	0 / 1	NO
downloadfrom	Link to download file, allow the user to scan file by link before actually downloading it	Only direct downloads, no redirects	NO
rule	The workflow rule to activate. Multiple values can be sent separated by "," to combine multiple workflows in one	sanitize, unarchive	NO
content-type	HTTP content type	multipart/form-data (when doing multipart upload) application/octet-stream (when doing binary upload)	YES
callbackurl	Specify a valid, publicly accessible URL where we can send the scan results when finished (asynchronous scanning, similar to webhooks)		NO

Private scanning does not work with sanitization. When sanitizing a file, even if the file is uploaded with "samplesharing: 0" header, we will keep a copy of the sanitized version of the file for the user to download.
Always specify the content-type header for the correct upload of files.

To ensure that files are uploaded correctly and file integrity is not altered some body payload restrictions must be respected:

binary: If files are sent in binary mode, 'content-type: application/octet-stream' header must be set. This mode of uploading files is PREFERRED!

curl -X POST https://api.metadefender.com/v4/file \
-H 'apikey: <apikey>' \
-H 'content-type: application/octet-stream' \
-d @/path/to/data.file

form-data: when uploading files using the -F(--file) header, set 'content-type: multipart/form-data' header

curl -X POST https://api.metadefender.com/v4/file \
-H 'apikey: <apikey>' \
-H 'content-type: multipart/form-data' \
-F =@/path/to/data.file

Body (payload)

	Format	Required	Example
HTTP Body	binary / www-url-encode / multipart / chunked	YES	`----WebKitFormBoundary7MA4YWxkTrZu0gW` `Content-Disposition: form-data; name=""; filename=""` `Content-Type:` `----WebKitFormBoundary7MA4YWxkTrZu0gW`

Response

HTTP Status Codes

Please refer to Status Codes for more information.

Body

Example of a successful upload request:

{
   "data_id": "ZzE2MTEyMlMxMkQ1U0dmR3hyeTZ3NVNHR01s",
   "status": "inqueue",
   "in_queue": 2,
   "queue_priority": "high"
}

Example of a failed upload request:

{
    "error": {
        "code": 400140,
        "messages": [
            "Multipart: Boundary not found"
        ]
    }
}

Descriptions of response:

dataId	Data ID used for retrieving scan results. Since multiple scans can potentially be performed for the same files when any engine has a different definition time or when there is an additional engine, this is the identifier for per-scan rather than per-file.
status	Status of the scan request. Value inqueue represents the state, when the scan is being queued for scanning.
in_queue	Counter representing the total numbers of files in the queue at the time of the request.
queue_priority	The priority of the file in scanning. Free users have normal priority, and paid users go to high.

Errors

Please refer to Errors for more information.

Sample code (Node.js)

var http = require("https");
 
var options = {
  "method": "POST",
  "hostname": [
    "api",
    "metadefender",
    "com"
  ],
  "path": [
    "v4",
    "file"
  ],
  "headers": {
    "content-type": "multipart/form-data; boundary=----WebKitFormBoundary7MA4YWxkTrZu0gW",
    "apikey": process.env.APIKEY,
    "Content-Type": "multipart/form-data"
  }
};
 
var req = http.request(options, function (res) {
  var chunks = [];
 
  res.on("data", function (chunk) {
    chunks.push(chunk);
  });
 
  res.on("end", function () {
    var body = Buffer.concat(chunks);
    console.log(body.toString());
  });
});
 
req.write("------WebKitFormBoundary7MA4YWxkTrZu0gW\r\nContent-Disposition: form-data; name=\"\"; filename=\"C:\\Users\\user_name\\Downloads\\test_doc.pdf\"\r\nContent-Type: application/pdf\r\n\r\n\r\n------WebKitFormBoundary7MA4YWxkTrZu0gW--");
req.end();

Sample code (cURL)

curl -X POST https://api.metadefender.com/v4/file \
-H "apikey: ${APIKEY}" \
-H 'content-type: application/octet-stream' \
-d @/path/to/data.file

Sample code (powershell)

# usage: upload-example.ps -path test.txt
 
param(
    $Path
)
 
$uri = 'https://api.metadefender.com/v4/file'
$file = Split-Path $Path -leaf
$apikey = $env:APIKEY
 
Write-Output $Path
Write-Output $file
 
$headers = @{}
$headers.Add('apikey', $apikey)
$headers.Add('filename', $file)
 
$result = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $uri -Method Post -Headers $headers -Body $Path -ContentType 'application/octet-stream'
Write-Output $result.content

2.1 Scanning a file by file upload