What does Virtual Patching achieve for applications?

Virtual Patching is a powerful technique used to protect applications from vulnerabilities without requiring immediate software updates. By utilizing rules or policies, Virtual Patching intercepts and mitigates potential attack vectors that exploit unpatched vulnerabilities. This approach allows organizations to maintain a level of security for their applications while they might be in the process of testing or deploying official patches.

This is especially crucial since there are often delays or various complications that can arise when applying traditional software updates. Virtual Patching serves as an interim solution that provides essential protection during this vulnerability window, ensuring that an application's weaknesses are addressed in a timely manner, even if the software itself has not been updated yet.

In contrast, the other choices present concepts that do not accurately encapsulate the functionality of Virtual Patching. An alternative to software updates indicates a completely different relationship between software updates and Virtual Patching. Immediate software updates suggest a proactive, rapid deployment that is not always feasible. Lastly, the complete elimination of old versions doesn't align with the principles of Virtual Patching since the method aims to protect existing versions rather than remove them.