Dynamic Vulnerability Correlation for IT Scanning

The patent segments the large set of vulnerability scanning rules into multiple forests (CVE forest, CWE forest, and Generic forest), each containing multiple trees organized by priority levels. This segmentation allows the scanner to process rules in an organized manner, evaluating high-priority rules first and stopping early when vulnerabilities are found, thereby reducing overall scan time while maintaining comprehensive coverage.

The patent implements preliminary action by pre-organizing vulnerability rules into hierarchical forests and trees with assigned priority levels and confidence levels before scanning begins. This pre-structuring enables the scanner to efficiently navigate through rules without requiring complex runtime decision-making, reducing scan time while ensuring thorough coverage.

By dividing vulnerability rules into segmented forests and trees with priority levels, the system can focus computing resources on evaluating high-priority rules first. This segmentation enables early termination of scanning when vulnerabilities are detected, reducing overall computing resource consumption while maintaining comprehensive coverage through the hierarchical structure.

The patent applies local quality by assigning different priority levels and confidence levels to different trees and branches within the forests. This allows the scanner to allocate computing resources dynamically, spending more time on high-priority, high-confidence rules and less time on lower-priority rules, thereby optimizing resource usage while ensuring thorough vulnerability detection.