Maya Security Tool FAQ

Autodesk Support

May 26, 2020


What are the security tools? How does the security tool work?

  • The Maya Security Tools App Store suite is an additional package that can check for specific instances of known malware. It is Python-based and extendable by customers for their own needs. The suite includes:
    • bash scripts to query for known string signatures in Maya Ascii scene files and userSetup files 
    • bash scripts to remove recognized malware
    • Maya plugins to add in File scanning and File loading checks for known strings

What does the scanner do? What is it looking for?

How do I use the tool?

  • Once you've downloaded and installed the tool, you then need to load the plugins through the plugin manager.
  • Once plugins are loaded, you will find new scanning options under the File menu.

How long does it take to scan an asset?

  • Scanning done through the Maya plugin is mostly just the time it takes to load the file.
  • Scanning done via the batch scripts is faster than loading the Maya scene, but does require searching of the file (and hence, will scale with the size of the file).

Is there a loading performance hit when enabling active scanning of files?

  • The overhead is usually negligible (less than a second).

Does it ask every time to scan an asset?

  • Manual scanning (scan file/folder) is a one time operation initiated by a user or script.
  • Active scanning (enabled by loading MayaScannerCB.py) will automatically scan when loading any asset into Maya. A prompt is only given to the user if an issue is detected. This scanning can be disabled by unloading the plugin.

How can I integrate this into my studio?

  • All actions are implemented as underlying Python commands.
  • You are free to call the scanners from your own scripts or automation.

How is this going to be addressed in the future?

  • Note: Maya's Security preferences cover a wider range of potential security risks that can be determined at runtime.
  • We continue to explore options to maintain the security features of Maya.


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