A computer hardware-implemented method, system, and/or computer program product manages software patches. A computer monitoring hardware system receives a notification of a new release of a software patch. The computer monitoring hardware system scores a security posture of a monitored computer system to generate a security posture value based on a set of computer system parameters for the monitored computer system. In response to patch control logic within the computer monitoring hardware system determining that the monitored computer system is authorized to install the software patch and that the security posture value exceeds the predetermined value, the computer monitoring hardware system retrieves and installs the software patch in the monitored computer system.