The volume and severity of SAP vulnerabilities are increasing, and attackers are exploiting weaknesses faster than many enterprises can respond. Quarterly patch cycles that once felt acceptable seem now misaligned with an environment where zero-days can quickly hit hundreds of SAP NetWeaver servers, turning patch delay into a direct business exposure, Forbes December 9 reports.
Automated scanning, patch deployment, and virtual patching are essential to shrinking the exploit window and elevate SAP security notes to the same urgency as internet-facing systems, per the article.
1. Cloud Shared Responsibility
As organizations move to cloud-hosted SAP offerings such as RISE with SAP and GROW with SAP, confusion about shared responsibility is emerging as a major breach vector. Infrastructure may sit with SAP or a hyperscaler, but the application and data layers remain the customer’s job, and many enterprises still assume “the provider has it covered” across access, configuration, and compliance controls. The article warns that a significant cloud SAP breach tied to this misunderstanding is likely and calls for explicit responsibility models, training, and regular audits across identity, configuration, and integrations.
2. Legacy SAP Landscapes
Legacy on-premises SAP systems are depicted as high-risk. A survey cited in the article notes that only about 39% of SAP ECC customers have purchased S/4HANA licenses, leaving a majority on older, often unsupported platforms that combine outdated operating systems, unpatched software, and weak segmentation. These conditions make legacy SAP estates prime targets for ransomware and data theft, with business continuity hinging on how well organizations segment networks, restrict access, patch what they can, and test backup and recovery plans.
3. AI an Accelerator for Attack
AI appears as a double-edged force in SAP security, with threat actors using it to scan for misconfigurations, discover vulnerabilities, and generate exploit code at scale. On the defensive side, machine learning and analytics enable behavior monitoring, anomaly detection, and more automated incident response, especially when SAP telemetry feeds into SIEM and AI-driven analysis pipelines. The article stresses that leaders should assume attackers are already using AI and focus on closing the gap through AI-enhanced tools, behavior analytics, and tighter integration of SAP data into enterprise security operations.
4. SAP in the SOC
Historically, SAP has been a blind spot for security operations centers (SOCs), with proprietary log formats and niche expertise keeping critical events outside enterprise SIEM and SOC workflows. That is beginning to change as organizations recognize SAP as mission-critical infrastructure that must be monitored alongside other core systems to catch cross-system threats in real time. The outlet emphasized integrating SAP logs into SIEM, defining SAP-specific detection use cases, and ensuring SOC teams have the training or support needed to interpret SAP signals effectively.
5. SAP Security Not Prioritized
Even as threats escalate, many organizations still treat SAP security as a narrow technical concern rather than a board-level risk tied to revenue, operations, and compliance. When SAP is excluded from central security programs, budget decisions, and executive risk reviews, gaps persist across patching, cloud responsibility, legacy systems, AI monitoring, and SOC visibility. Elevating SAP security into mainstream risk governance is essential to closing those gaps, rather than relying on piecemeal fixes within IT alone.
What This Means for ERP Insiders
SAP security is a board-level dimension of ERP strategy. The pressure to shorten patch cycles, harden legacy environments, and design security into migration paths is no longer optional, and solutions that ignore this reality will lose credibility in high-stakes industries. This environment favors platforms and services that make secure-by-default configurations, rapid patching, and continuous monitoring part of the core value proposition.
Cloud operating models demand clearer lines between platform and customer responsibility. As SAP workloads move into cloud programs, enterprise architects and systems integrators will need to design architectures, contracts, and operating models that spell out who owns which controls across identity, configuration, and telemetry. Providers that can surface these responsibilities clearly within their products, and integrators who can operationalize them, will be better positioned to support compliant, auditable SAP landscapes.
SAP security is a litmus test for how seriously enterprises treat their digital core. Organizations that embed SAP into central risk frameworks, align cloud and on-premises responsibilities, and connect SAP telemetry to modern, AI-enabled security operations will be better positioned to withstand disruption and maintain trust. Those that continue to view SAP security as a side issue risk discovering, too late, that their most critical business processes were the weakest link in their enterprise defense.
