Patent ID: 8621073

Claim:
A method comprising: identifying a set of active computer devices on a network; assessing each computer device in the set against a first vulnerability in a plurality of known vulnerabilities, wherein each vulnerability in the plurality of known vulnerabilities has a corresponding vulnerability script adapted to perform an automated assessment of a computer device against the respective vulnerability, and assessing each computer device against the first vulnerability includes executing a first vulnerability script; storing, in memory, results of the assessments of each computer device in the set against the first vulnerability as returned from the executed first vulnerability script; and providing at least a portion of the results for use by a second vulnerability script in an automated assessment of at least a portion of the computer devices in the set against a second vulnerability included in the plurality of known vulnerabilities, wherein the results identify that the portion of the computer devices include one or more of a set of characteristics capable of being exploited during execution of the second vulnerability script to determine whether the second vulnerability is present on at least the portion of the computer devices in the set.