← All Scanning Guides
🖥️

VMware Fusion / Workstation Scanning

Use vmrun to inject the VersionGopher™ collector into a guest VM, run a full filesystem scan, and pull the results back - all through VMware Tools, without SSH or network configuration.

Prerequisites
1

Set the VMX path

Point to the .vmx file for the guest VM you want to scan.
Terminal
# Adjust the path to match your VM location
VMXPATH="/Users/you/Virtual Machines.localized/CentOS 7 64-bit.vmwarevm/CentOS 7 64-bit.vmx"

# Start the VM headless (skip if already running)
vmrun start "$VMXPATH" nogui
2

Copy the collector into the guest

Use copyFileFromHostToGuest to transfer the collector binary. No SCP or shared folders needed.
Terminal
vmrun -gu <username> -gp <password> \
  copyFileFromHostToGuest "$VMXPATH" \
  ./version_gopher-linux-x64 \
  "/home/user/version_gopher"

vmrun -gu <username> -gp <password> \
  runProgramInGuest "$VMXPATH" -activeWindow /bin/bash -c \
  "chmod +x /home/user/version_gopher"
3

Run the scan

Execute the collector inside the guest. It scans the target directory and writes JSONL output.
Terminal
vmrun -gu <username> -gp <password> \
  runProgramInGuest "$VMXPATH" -activeWindow /bin/bash -c \
  "cd /home/user && prefix=versiongopher-vmware-guest-linux-x64-directory-usr-schema-v3 && ./version_gopher -d /usr/bin -o $prefix -j"
Tip: Replace /usr/bin with any directory path, or use -s when you need full-system coverage from inside the guest.
4

Pull results back to the host

Copy the scan output from the guest back to your host machine for import into the dashboard.
Terminal
vmrun -gu <username> -gp <password> \
  copyFileFromGuestToHost "$VMXPATH" \
  "/home/user/versiongopher-vmware-guest-linux-x64-directory-usr-schema-v3.jsonl" \
  /tmp/centos-scan.jsonl
5

Import into VersionGopher™

Upload the results via the web dashboard. For large scans, wait for import completion and CVE readiness before treating CVE totals as final.
Terminal
# In the dashboard
Import > Upload File > choose /tmp/centos-scan.jsonl
⚠️ vmrun stdout is unreliable. If you need to capture command output, redirect to a file inside the guest and use copyFileFromGuestToHost to retrieve it. Always use runProgramInGuest -activeWindow, never runScriptInGuest (it hangs on some platforms).