Release 4.1: GCP

June 30, 2025 

 The operating system for Virtual Scanner cannot be upgraded. You need to replace the scanner image or deploy a new scanner with the latest image, although this may not always be necessary. For details on when scanner replacement is necessary, refer to the Know when scanner replacement is needed section. 

What's New?

This release brings new features and updates to supported cloud platforms, data centers, and desktop platforms.

• Public Clouds:  Google Cloud Platform

• Availability of scanners in cloud marketplaces depends on cloud vendors and typically takes a few weeks after general availability from Qualys.
• This version is not limited to the platform listed above. In the upcoming releases, it will be available for all other supported virtualization platforms.

New Features

With this release, we have introduced new features for Google Cloud Platform.

• qVSA 4.1 image version is based on Oracle Linux 8(x86_64) with UEK kernel-5.15.
• Syslog forwarding is set up to forward all scanner logs, including scanning-related logs, AUTOUPDATE logs, and all messages from /var/log/messages.
• Instance type with a minimum of 2GB RAM is required.
• Support for TLSv1.3.

Limitation

The current release has the following limitations:

• This release does not support SCAP scanning for GCP and Oracle cloud platforms.
• Qualys Virtual Scanner Appliances has yet to support the following Google's Shielded VM features; hence, these features should be disabled during deployment to ensure proper operation:
  • Secure Boot  
  • Virtual TPM(vTPM)
  • Integrity monitoring

For more information on how the Qualys Virtual Scanner Appliance is secured, refer to Scanner Appliance FAQs.