Patent ID: 7823145

Claim:
A system for scanning and updating software on a dormant disk, said system comprising: a first software repository configured to couple to file system interface, wherein components of said first software repository are configured to engage directly with said file system interface to perform scanning and updating operations on said dormant disk; a virtual environment configured to couple between said file system interface and a second software repository, wherein said virtual environment is further configured to interact with components of said second software repository to achieve scanning and updating operations on said dormant disk, the virtual environment is a code module that virtualizes a local or remote operating software interface that is expected by a legacy scanner or legacy updater or combined legacy scanner/updater, the virtualizing of the local or remote operating software interface is creating software abstractions of the local or remote operating software interface; and wherein, the dormant disk is a storage disk having software that is capable of booting a computer system and is attached to a computer system which is not booted from the dormant disk and the updating operations are performed on the dormant disk without requiring booting of the dormant disk; a vulnerabilities database configured to couple to said first software repository, wherein said vulnerabilities database comprises a cache of known vulnerabilities for software products scanned by said components of said first software repository.