Patent ID: 7353539

Claim:
A method of identifying software vulnerabilities in a computer network comprising a set of computer systems having software stored thereon, a scanning system, and a management system, wherein the method comprises: operating the scanning system to apply to at least one computer system of at least a subset of the computer systems a first interrogation program arranged to exploit a known software vulnerability; in the event that the known vulnerability is exploited, operating the first interrogation program to cause the computer system on which the known software vulnerability was exploited to apply to a plurality of said computer systems in said subset a second interrogation program arranged to exploit the known software vulnerability; in the event that the known vulnerability is exploited by the second interrogation program, operating the second interrogation program to generate management information at the computer system on which the known vulnerability was exploited by the second interrogation program, the management information at least identifying the respective computer system at which the known vulnerability was exploited; and sending the generated management information to the management system.