Basically, I'm looking for an interface where the input would be the name of a malware, or its signature, and the output would be "malware found in the database" or "malware unknown"
The tool must search in my own database (which could be outdated or have miscelaneous problems). This is to test my own, current, specific installation, not Kaspersky as a brand.
Simple google's virustotal.com includes kaspersky. Upload your file there, and see what kaspersky says, along with dozens of other av.
There is a size and rate limit, but you can sign up for a professional account if you need to do mass scanning.
Also there is an API you can use for scanning.
Using the virustotal API you can also use hash of the file. There are 3 acceptable hashes, that I recall, one of which was SHA2. I think you can submit all 3 for the same file if you wish.
They have a software developers kit that might help. https://usa.kaspersky.com/antivirus-sdk
However, be prepared to PAY $$$$!
You'll have a problem with submitting a name of malware - what's the name? Not every piece of malware has the same name. Now that black hats are getting more professional, they're getting a lot better at hiding their work and finding malware is a lot more work. Even with polymorphic malware, submitting a signature or file hash makes an assumption that someone else has discovered the malware, with the same signature, submitted it to a security company, and a definition has been written for it with a corresponding entry into a database of known malware.
It used to be with Symantec/Norton that you could look at the client and see which pieces of malware were known. I haven't used the product in years so I couldn't tell you if that's the case any more.
I have to agree with @cybernard about VirusTotal - I think that's about as good as you're going to get.
