Preparing SAP Security for Zero-Day Vulnerabilities
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When it comes to SAP threats, zero-day vulnerabilities are among the most significant. The critical SAP Visual Composer vulnerability, CVE-2025-31324, was actively exploited as a zero-day before and after its public disclosure in April 2025. Threat actors used the vector to compromise hundreds of SAP NetWeaver systems globally. The vulnerability had a CVSS score of 10.0 and allowed unauthenticated remote attackers to upload and execute malicious files, typically web shells, on vulnerable servers.
This zero-day vulnerability attack underscores the need for robust and proactive security measures. A continuing issue is that the vulnerability was actively exploited before a patch became available, leaving many organizations exposed. SAP’s response was to issue an emergency out-of-band patch. This demonstrates the unpredictable and urgent nature of these types of zero-day threats. This was an unscheduled software update released outside the regular Patch Tuesday update cycle to fix a critical security vulnerability immediately.
SAP-based applications are at the core of hundreds of thousands of businesses worldwide. In fact, 440,000 companies in more than 180 countries use SAP software to manage core functions such as finance, supply chain, and human resources. With critical and sensitive data at stake, organizations must respond immediately to emerging threats. This includes the ability to swiftly patch systems, detect threats and potential exploits in real-time, and maintain a hardened, resilient system configuration to minimize attack vectors.
Reducing SAP attack vectors requires four cybersecurity cornerstones: patch management, threat detection, code security, and vulnerability management. These foundation blocks enable cybersecurity teams to minimize the time hackers have to exploit vulnerabilities and lessen the impact on the SAP landscape in the unfortunate event of a breach.
Patch Management
Ensure you can apply all patches in a timely manner, and the critical patches immediately. An unpatched SAP system is a prime target for cyberattacks. If you are missing patches, then you are exposing known vulnerabilities to hackers and increasing your chances of a ransomware event. Attackers using ever-sophisticated methods are constantly scanning for these exposures, making patch management one of the four cornerstones of SAP security. SAP patching is the most effective and straightforward way to reduce the SAP attack surface by eliminating known vulnerabilities.
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It is essential to understand the severity and impact of vulnerabilities as outlined within each SAP Security Note. You must also understand the note’s relevance to your specific SAP system. These understandings form fundamental truths relevant for efficient system patching. A deployment hierarchy of patches must be established to ensure the most critical fixes are conducted first, balanced with an implementation effort across less severe patches. This approach efficiently reduces the patch implementation backlog while also ensuring zero days are sealed.
For efficiency, patch automation is highly recommended for the process. Even expert SAP architects admit that patching can be a complex process, which makes patch automation even more appealing. The good news is that third-party organizations are now providing an automated patch implementation for SAP in concert with its Security Notes. For example, if an SAP Note is considered ‘safe’ to deploy within the relevant SAP system, it can be automatically patched without manual steps.
Threat Detection
Use robust and automated threat detection solutions. No matter how “swiftly” the system can be patched, there will always be a time gap that renders the SAP landscape at risk. A good mitigation strategy is to integrate patch management with threat detection and establish virtual patching. This works best when both solutions are implemented on the same platform.
Virtual patching protects affected SAP systems whenever SAP releases a critical SNote (also known as “Hot news”). This is a quick patch implementation that allows administrators to follow their patch management processes without compromising security. The latest SAP patches are available for download, along with updates for configuring vulnerable SAP code or components. Threat detection mitigates the risk until the SAP Security Note can be deployed.
Regardless of the nature of the zero-day vulnerability, the benefit to threat detection is that any malicious activity, including various anomalies and suspicious user activities, will be detected. Due to the complexity of SAP landscapes, complex and dynamic security sensors and listeners are required. The data, enriched with contextual information from other SAP sources and from the audit logs, must be aggregated and channeled into a detection model built within the SAP environment. This integrated approach is necessary for robust security.
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Threat detection transforms and correlates raw audit log data into actionable intelligence, providing SOC Teams with precise alerts and mitigation guidance for a swift and effective incident response process. Threat detection can be combined with HyperLogging technology that provides investigation capabilities to discover even sophisticated attack patterns in SAP environments.
Code Security, Vulnerability, and Compliance Management
The goal is to harden your SAP systems to mitigate risks. The system’s vulnerability and the size of the attack surface are determining factors for the success of a cyber-attack. Known vulnerabilities in the SAP code can be fixed; therefore, it is imperative to scan the SAP ABAP code of custom applications for potential exploits resulting from insecure programming. Vulnerability and compliance management ensure that the hundreds of parameters and settings influencing the hardening level of an SAP system are configured according to SAP’s security recommendations and other best practices.
By definition, zero-day vulnerabilities are unknown until they are discovered and disclosed. However, a mature vulnerability management solution for SAP can support threat detection by indicating potential areas of exploitation. A hardened SAP system is less vulnerable to both known and unknown threats. System hardening involves minimizing the attack surface by turning off unnecessary services, enforcing strict configurations, and adhering to the principle of least privilege access.
In addition, automating security and compliance checks is a key step toward sound SAP system hardening. A security roadmap for SAP is available daily, featuring ranked findings that strike a balance between exploitation risk and resolution complexity. The roadmap also provides details for an efficient vulnerability management process.
CONCLUSION
A resilient SAP security posture requires a holistic, integrated approach:
- Immediate patching closes known vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them.
- Automated, real-time threat detection identifies and responds to both known and unknown threats, including those that exploit zero-day vulnerabilities.
- Comprehensive system hardening minimizes the attack surface and limits the potential impact of successful exploits.
Organizations must acknowledge that zero-day vulnerabilities are a reality; so design your security strategies accordingly. With proper patching, threat detection, and code security, SAP landscapes can achieve much better cyber resilience, reducing anxiety through risk mitigation.
