What the patent claims
Claim 1 selects computer systems to scan, applies an interrogation program that can exploit a known software vulnerability, and, if the exploit succeeds, generates management information identifying the system and sends it over the network. The interrogation program also remediates the vulnerability.
What we found
Core SDI’s US 7,228,566 (priority July 2001) is a penetration-testing system whose agents run system calls and scripts on target hosts: exploitation of vulnerabilities from a testing system.
Internet Security Systems’ US 7,178,166 (priority September 2000) delivers a scanner to the workstation that assesses vulnerabilities and repairs the ones it finds.
McAfee’s US 7,549,168 (2001) drives remote agents that run risk-assessment modules on selected machines, and Cisco’s US 6,324,656 (1998) describes rule-driven network vulnerability assessment.
None of the four appears in the ’497 citation record.
Why it matters to the defendant
No single reference has all three steps, but the pieces were each patented one to two years before the 2002 priority date: Core SDI for exploitation, ISS for repair, and McAfee for remote agents on selected systems. That is the outline of an obviousness case. Rapid7 sells vulnerability-management and penetration-testing tools, so its own product history from that period may add evidence that patent literature cannot.
The answer in Patent Mechanics
The search as it appears in the app, abridged.
| Reference | Assignee | Priority | Citation record | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US 7,228,566 | Core SDI | 2001 | Not cited | Strong |
| US 7,178,166 | Internet Security Systems | 2000 | Not cited | Partial |
| US 7,549,168 | McAfee | 2001 | Not cited | Partial |
| Element | Claim language (abridged) | ’566 | ’166 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1[a] | Select computer systems to scan | ✓ | ✓ |
| 1[b] | Interrogation program exploits a known vulnerability | ✓ | – |
| 1[c] | Generate and send management information | ? | ? |
| 1[d] | Remediate the vulnerability | – | ✓ |
References
| Reference | Title | Priority | Covers | Gaps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US 7,228,566 | Automated computer system security compromise (Core SDI) | 2001-07-10 | Agent-based exploitation of target hosts over the network | No remediation or management-information report in the claims |
| US 7,178,166 | Vulnerability assessment and authentication by a local scanner (ISS) | 2000-09-19 | Scanner assesses vulnerabilities and repairs them | Checks rather than exploits |
| US 7,549,168 | Network-based risk assessment of local vulnerabilities (McAfee) | 2001-06-29 | Remote commands run assessment agents on selected computers | No exploitation or repair in the claims |
Limits of this analysis
- First-pass reading of claims and abstracts; a motivation to combine the references still has to be shown.
- Commercial scanners and penetration-testing tools from 2000 to 2002 are likely strong non-patent prior art and are outside this search.
“Not cited” means the reference does not appear in the examiner or applicant citations of the patent or its family in our index. This article is research, not legal advice, and makes no finding that any claim is invalid.
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