Patent ID: 7747998

Claim:
A method of allowing a non-privileged user to apply a patch to a target software product, said non-privileged user having an account privilege with insufficient rights to apply the patch, the method comprising: receiving the patch from the non-privileged user, said patch having a state indicating privilege information included in patch trust data or digital signature data associated therewith, said state indicating at least one of the following information so as to distinguish from each other based on whether the patch is permitted to be applied by an administrator having an account privilege with sufficient rights to apply the patch or by the non-privileged user: the patch is pre-approved by the administrator for elevation to enable the non-privileged user to apply the patch and the patch is elevated by a trusted digital certificate such that the non-privileged user can apply the patch using a matching certificate registered with the target software product, determining if the received patch has been pre-approved by the administrator to enable the non-privileged user to apply the patch to the target software product based on the patch state or the patch has been elevated by the trusted digital certificate such that the non-privileged user can apply the patch using the matching certificate, and applying, by the non-privileged user having the account privilege with insufficient rights to apply the patch, the received patch to the target software product if it is determined that the received patch has been elevated to enable the non-privileged user to apply the patch to the target software product or the non-privileged user has the matching certificate, wherein the state of the patch is elevated to allow the non-privileged user to apply the patch to the software product.