Systems and methods for assessing the compliance of a computer across a network

摘要

The disclosed principles describe systems and methods for assessing the security posture of a target device, wherein the assessment is performed by a scanning computer in communication with the target device via a communication network. By employing a system or method in accordance with the disclosed principles, distinct advantages are achieved. Specifically, conducting such a remote scan allows for the scanner computer to perform a remote scan of the remote device without installing client software to the remote device. Thus, the disclosed principles reduce the need for internal IT resources to manage the deployment and updates of client software on the target device. Also, conducting a remote scan according to the disclosed principles allows for the remote scan to be performed even if the scanner computer and remote device run different operating systems.

主权项

1. A method for conducting a scan on a target device across a computer network, the method comprising:
providing a scanner computer in communication with a communication network; providing a target device in communication with the communication network; providing the scanner computer an address and login credentials of the target device; establishing a network connection between the scanner computer and the target device across the communication network; loading a plurality of assessment rules into a memory location on the scanner computer; performing function calls of an operating system of the target device, the function calls operable to request data items from the target device; converting the function calls into compatible function calls for the scanner computer; receiving the data items from the target device at the scanner computer via the communication network; passing the data items to a standard assessment library; analyzing the data items according to the plurality of assessment rules at the standard assessment library to assess a current posture of the target device and at least one of the method steps is implemented by a hardware processor.