SAP Notes and Patches Archives - Page 2 of 6

Security Advisory for Critical SAP ICMAD Vulnerabilities

Layer Seven on February 15, 2022

International threat intelligence agencies including the U.S Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Computer Emergency Response Team for the EU (CERT-EU) issued security advisories last week for critical vulnerabilities in the SAP Internet Communication Manager (ICM). The ICM supports inbound and outbound communication with SAP systems using the HTTP(S) protocol. It is a standard component of the NetWeaver Application Server ABAP and Java and the SAP Web Dispatcher.

The advisories relate to CVE-2022-22536, CVE-2022-22532 and CVE-2022-22533, labelled ICMAD (Internet Communication Manager Advanced Desync). The most critical is CVE-2022-22536: a memory corruption vulnerability that can be exploited through a single HTTP request to fully compromise SAP systems, remotely and without authentication. This impacts AS ABAP and the Web Dispatcher when they are accessed through an HTTP gateway. For AS ABAP, the gateway could be the Web Dispatcher. The vulnerability does not impact direct access to SAP application servers. CVE-2022-22532 impacts AS Java only. This vulnerability has a lower CVSS than CVE-2022-22536 due to a higher attack complexity, but ranks high in terms of impact to Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. CVE-2022-22533 is for a lower priority denial of service vulnerability in AS Java triggered by requests that exhaust Memory Pipes (MPI) used for communicating between the ICM and work processes in application servers.

There is evidence of active scanning for ICMAD. SAP systems exposed to the Internet are especially vulnerable. External-facing Web Dispatchers are equally vulnerable. Consequently, it is critical to apply the relevant security notes to patch SAP systems against ICMAD.

Note 3123396 patches AS ABAP and the Web Dispatcher for CVE-2022-22536. SAP Kernels and Web Dispatchers should be updated to the minimum patch levels detailed in the note. The workaround detailed in note 3137885 can be applied as a stop-gap measure if the patches cannot be implemented at short notice. For access through the Web Dispatcher, refer to 3137885 to ensure that Web Dispatcher installations meet the minimum patch level. To apply the workaround, the profile parameter wdisp/additional_conn_close should be set to TRUE. For more details, refer to note 3138881.

Note 3123427 patches AS Java for CVE-2022-22532 and CVE-2022-22533. The workaround recommended in the note can be applied using the parameter setting icm/handle_http_pipeline_requests=FALSE if support for HTTP pipeline requests is not required.

The Cybersecurity Extension for SAP discovers vulnerable ABAP, Java and Web Dispatcher installations that have not been successfully patched for ICMAD. It also identifies missing or incorrectly applied workarounds if the corrections in notes 3123396 and 3123427 have not been applied. The SAP-certified solution performs over 1800 checks for known vulnerabilities in SAP applications and components and supporting databases and operating systems.

Whitepaper: Securing SAP Solutions from Log4Shell

Layer Seven on January 18, 2022

Log4JShell is one of the most dangerous security vulnerabilities in decades. It can be exploited remotely with minimal complexity and without authentication to execute arbitrary code that could lead to the complete compromise of vulnerable applications.

Log4Shell impacts Log4J, a widely installed open-source Java logging utility. A dangerous zero-day remote code execution vulnerability in Log4J was reported in November last year. The vulnerability was patched in December and published in the National Vulnerability Database on December 12 as CVE-2021-44228.

Log4Shell was added to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) due to evidence of widespread active exploitation of the vulnerability by multiple threat actors. This includes nation state groups originating from China, Iran, Russia and North Korea. According to some reports, threat actors are exploiting the vulnerability to deploy ransomware payloads or to gain access to target networks. The access is then brokered to other threat actors.

Log4J is bundled in multiple SAP solutions including products such as SAP HANA and SAP Process Orchestration. Download the new whitepaper from Layer Seven Security to learn to mitigate and detect Log4Shell in SAP applications. The whitepaper includes a detailed breakdown of the vulnerability, guidance for patching and securing SAP solutions, and recommendations for detecting Log4shell signatures and indicators of compromise.

DOWNLOAD

CISA Issues Directive for Actively Exploited SAP Vulnerabilities

Layer Seven on November 23, 2021

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued Binding Operational Directive 22-01 on November 3 to compel government departments and agencies to remediate specific vulnerabilities with known exploits. According to CISA, the vulnerabilities pose a significant risk to information systems. This includes several vulnerabilities for SAP applications that must be remediated by May 3, 2022. Agencies have 60 days to review and update their vulnerability management policies in accordance with the Directive.

The Directive addresses weaknesses with the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) used for rating Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) in the National Vulnerability Database (NVD). CVSS does not take into account active exploitations for vulnerabilities. Most critical CVEs are highly complex and have no known exploits. The Directive shifts the focus to CVEs with active threats. These vulnerabilities are prioritized for remediation and are classified in the CISA catalog for Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV).

The catalog includes six CVEs for SAP applications.

CVE-2010-5326 is for the invoker servlet implemented in the InvokerServletclass within the Web Container of the J2EE for SAP NetWeaver Application Java (AS Java). The invoker servlet is vulnerable to authentication bypass, enabling remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via HTTP or HTTPS requests. The servlet is disabled by default in higher versions of AS Java. Refer to SAP note 1445998 for disabling the relevant property of the servlet_jsp service on server nodes. SAP also recommends scanning or reviewing application code to identify the usage of servlets with the prefix “/servlet/”. Applications should use local servlets only that are defined in web.xml files. Auth constraints in web xml files are recommended to restrict the invoking of the servlet to users with an administrative role.

CVE-2016-3976 relates to a directory traversal vulnerability in AS Java that could be exploited to read arbitrary files from servers remotely and without authentication using CrashFileDownloadServlet. Note 2234971 provides a patch for the LM-CORE to address the CVE.

CVE-2020-6287 is for the RECON vulnerability in the LM Configuration Wizard of AS Java. Attackers can exploit a missing authentication check in the CTCWebService to perform administrative functions such as creating privileged users. Note 2934135 includes a patch to validate user input for log paths and block arbitrary log file locations and extensions.

CVE-2018-2380 relates to a directory traversal vulnerability in SAP CRM. There is a publicly-available exploit for the CVE that could be deployed to perform remote code execution through log file injection. Note 2547431 includes a patch to validate user input for log paths and block arbitrary log file locations and extensions.

CVE-2016-9563 is for a Denial of Service vulnerability in a BPM service within AS Java. This CVE also has a publicly-available exploit. Note 2296909 disables the resolving of external entities during XML parsing to address the CVE.

CVE-2020-6207 relates to a missing authentication check for the SAP EEM servlet in SAP Solution Manager. A module for the Metasploit penetration framework automates the exploitation of the CVE. This could be exploited to execute OS commands on connected SMDAgents via the /EemAdminService/EemAdmin page for User Experience Monitoring. Note 2890213 includes a patch for the impacted LM-SERVICE software component and instructions for a temporary workaround involving enabling authentication for the EemAdmin service in the Java stack of Solution Manager.

The Cybersecurity Extension for SAP is an SAP-certified solution that automates the discovery of applications vulnerable to the CVEs for SAP applications in the KEV catalog. It also monitors SAP logs to detect the signature of exploits targeting the CVEs and provides mechanisms to investigate and respond to the exploits.

Security Monitoring with Focused Insights for SAP Solution Manager

Layer Seven on October 28, 2021

Focused Insights is an advanced dashboard framework that was previously available only for MaxAttention customers as part of the MaxAttention Next Generation Add-On (MANGO) but is now available for all SAP customers. Focused Insights can now be installed in SAP Solution Manager 7.2 without any additional SAP licensing or user and usage restrictions.

Focused Insights for SAP Solution Manager provides ready-to-use templates for monitoring a range of KPIs for SAP landscapes. Customers can select from over 800 best practice KPIs for multiple use cases. The framework is organized in three levels: Operational, Governance and Strategic. Security metrics are monitored primarily in the Tactical Dashboard, accessible from the Focused Insights Launchpad.

The Tactical Dashboard can monitor several instances. Instances are groups of systems geared for different users or groups. Instances are setup and maintained using the TAC Configuration option. This includes relevant systems, scenarios and thresholds for KPIs.

The current version of the dashboard supports eleven scenarios such as Availability, Performance, Operations, and Security. Each scenario is rated green, red or yellow based on the thresholds and options maintained in the configuration.

The Dashboard is refreshed automatically every 10 minutes but the frequency can be changed from 5 to 30 minutes and maintained separately for each instance.

The security scenario supports monitoring of security metrics for ABAP, HANA, and Java systems and the SAP Web Dispatcher. It reports the number of very high (hot news) and high rated security notes that are unapplied in each system, users with critical privileges including the SAP_ALL profile, systems that are open for direct changes, insecure client settings, RFC destinations configured with privileged users, and misconfigurations in specific security-relevant profile parameters. Notes information is sourced from System Recommendations in SAP Solution Manager. The results of other security checks are derived from Configuration Validation using target systems supplied by SAP.

Focused Insights 2.0 SP7 and higher supports the integration of custom target systems with the security scenario in the Tactical Dashboard. This can be used to support monitoring for additional security checks beyond the SAP standard delivery.

Job Monitoring with SAP Solution Manager

Layer Seven on November 25, 2020

Security monitoring using SAP Solution Manager is driven by a series of background jobs that automate data collection and analysis for system vulnerabilities, security notes, and event logs. Vulnerability data is extracted daily, notes information is collected weekly, and event data can be collected as frequently as every minute. Any interruption to the background jobs for these areas could impact the coverage of security monitoring.

SAP Solution Manager supports centralized monitoring for jobs in SAP systems with automated detection and alerting for job errors. Monitoring for scheduled jobs is setup using a guided procedure that includes steps for selecting relevant jobs, activating alerts, and enabling email/ SMS notifications for alerts.

You can access Job Monitoring from Application Operations in SAP Solution Manager Configuration.

Steps 1-3 of the guided procedure prepare the infrastructure for job monitoring including setup of the required users. Steps 4-6 involve the selection of scheduled jobs for monitoring and configuring alerts and notifications. In the following example, we will create a monitoring scenario for the standard job SM:SYSTEM RECOMMENDATIONS. This job connects to SAP Support on a weekly schedule to calculate required security, correction, performance, legal, and other notes for systems. It also connects to managed systems to determine the implementation status of calculated notes.

In the first step of the scenario configuration, we define a name and description for the scenario.

During the second step, we select the systems for the scenario. Since SM:SYSTEM RECOMMENDATIONS runs from Solution Manager, we will select a SolMan installation.

Next, we maintain the scope for the scenario in terms of the specific job.

Once the job is selected, we can adjust the metric settings including thresholds for job errors, processing times, terminations and warnings.

Finally, we activate the alerting and select the required language, severity and description for the alert.

Recipients for email notifications triggered for alerts can be maintained in the Incident and Notifications tab.

Once the scenario is activated in the final step, we will be immediately alerted and notified by Solution Manager for any issue that interrupts the successful execution of the system recommendations job. The steps can be repeated for other scheduled jobs in SAP Solution Manager and managed systems.

RECON: Secure Your Systems with SAP Solution Manager

Layer Seven on July 15, 2020

US-CERT issued Alert AA20-195A on Monday for the so-called RECON (Remotely Exploitable Code On NetWeaver) vulnerability in SAP NetWeaver Application Server Java (AS Java). RECON impacts versions 7.3 and higher of AS Java including an estimated 40,000 SAP systems. Based on a BinaryEdge search, 4,000 of the impacted systems are internet-facing. The vulnerability is rated 10/10 using the Common Vulnerability Scoring System and can be exploited remotely by unauthenticated attackers to fully compromise SAP systems.

RECON targets a missing authentication flaw in the LM Configuration Wizard of AS Java to execute malicious code that creates administrative users in compromised systems. Attackers can exploit RECON to compromise not only AS Java systems but also connected systems including SAP ERP, CRM, SCM, and BW.

CISA strongly recommends SAP customers to apply SAP Note 2934135 to mitigate RECON. The note introduces authentication and authorization for the LM Configuration Wizard and therefore secures against RECON attacks. As a workaround, the application tc~lm~ctc~cul~startup_app can be disabled if the note cannot be applied. The LM Configuration Wizard is required by SAP Landscape Management. According to SAP, “This application is used by a few SAP Lifecycle procedures only, such as the initial technical setup. It is not needed for a day-to-day operations. You can temporarily activate or enable this application for executing the SAP lifecycle procedures.” Procedures for disabling the LM Configuration Wizard are detailed in SAP Note 2939665.

The implementation status of Notes 2934135 and 2939665 for impacted systems should be tracked using System Recommendations (SysRec) in SAP Solution Manager. SysRec connects directly to SAP Support to discover relevant notes for SAP applications, databases and components.

Users can create custom tiles in SysRec to track the implementation status of RECON notes in their SAP landscape from the Fiori launchpad.

The Cybersecurity Extension for SAP Solution Manager monitors Java application logs to detect the signature of RECON exploits. This includes enabling and executing the vulnerable application. The Extension also detects the creation of new administrative users and connections by new users or source IP addresses using anomaly detection. RECON alerts can be investigated using the incident response procedures Preventing RECON Attacks and Investigating Suspected RECON Attacks.

Email and SMS notifications are triggered for RECON alerts. The alerts can also be monitored in Solution Manager using the Alert Inbox, System Monitoring, and other applications. They can also be integrated with SIEM solutions for cross-platform monitoring. Custom alarms can be added to the Fiori launchpad to notify users of suspected RECON exploits.

10KBLAZE: Secure Your Systems with SAP Solution Manager

Layer Seven on May 13, 2019

On May 2, the Department of Homeland Security issued an alert for SAP customers in response to the disclosure of new exploits targeting vulnerable SAP components. According to some reports, the so-called 10KBLAZE exploits could impact 90% of SAP installations worldwide. The exploits target misconfigurations in the gateway server and message server installed in most SAP systems including S/4HANA, ERP and CRM. The successful execution of the exploits could enable attackers to exfiltrate or modify data and provoke a denial of service without authentication. In other words, attackers can completely compromise target SAP systems without any user credentials.

The new exploits target known vulnerabilities addressed by notes and advisories released by SAP since 2005. Note 821875 details measures to secure the message server, including restricting external access, separating internal and external communications, and maintaining secure access control lists. The profile parameter ms/monitor should be set to 0 to prevent external programs such as msmon from administering the message server at the operating system level. Access to transaction SMMS should also be restricted since the setting can be changed dynamically using the Message Server Monitor within the application server. A separate port for internal communication between application servers should be defined using parameter rdisp/msserv_internal. This will prevent external clients from intercepting or rerouting internal message server communications. The port should not be exposed to clients or intranets. Finally, the parameter ms/acl_info should specify the file containing a restrictive access control list of hosts, domains, IP addresses or subnets for application servers permitted to log on with the message server.

ACLs should also be defined for the gateway server to control access to starting external programs. This can be performed using the gateway security file sec_info. The correct syntax for the file depends on the kernel level. For kernel 7.20 and higher, the setting USER-HOST=LOCAL is recommended to protect against 10KBLAZE exploits. This will allow connections from the same server instance. The setting USER-HOST=INTERNAL could be vulnerable but is required for SID clusters. For detailed guidance, refer to Note 1408081. The ACLs should be supported by the setting gw/acl_mode to 1. This parameter defines the behavior of the gateway server if sec_info does not exist.

Since some 10KBLAZE exploits are targeted at modifying or redirecting data packets, enabling SNC to authenticate and encrypt client-server communications is recommended.

SAP systems vulnerable to 10KBLAZE exploits can be discovered using SAP Solution Manager. The Cybersecurity Extension for SAP Solution Manager automatically monitors security settings for the message server and gateway server including profile parameter settings, access control lists and users with critical transactions such as SMMS. The extension also monitors message and gateway logs for external monitor commands, successful and unsuccessful program starts, and other events. Alerts are triggered by the extension for suspected exploits.

The example below illustrates how you can discover insecure sec_info entries that could expose systems to 10KBLAZE exploits.

Click on Vulnerability Report in the Fiori Launchpad.

Filter by ABAP systems, select the check-box for the target system and click on Display.

Filter for vulnerabilities in open status within the area of RFC Security. Click on the check for starting of external programs.

Review the details and recommendation. Click on the linked SAP Notes and SAP Help.

Click on Additional Information to review the insecure entries in the sec_info ACL.

Focus on entries with the setting USER-HOST=internal.

Click on the download icon to export the current settings.

If required, add comments in the Comment section.

The finding for the system will be automatically removed from the report once the sec_info entries are updated. However, you can manually change the status using the Change Status option. Note that status changes are tracked in the extension.

You can also assign responsibility for remediating the finding to specific groups using the Change Owner option.

Webinar: 10KBLAZE – Secure Your SAP Systems with CVA and SolMan

Layer Seven on May 9, 2019

According to a recent report, thousands of SAP installations may be vulnerable to 10KBLAZE exploits targeting SAP applications.

Join SAP and Layer Seven Security to learn how to secure your SAP systems against the exploits with SAP Code Vulnerability Analyzer (CVA) and SAP Solution Manager. CVA performs static code analysis to detect vulnerabilities in custom code. SAP Solution Manager detects vulnerabilities and threats in SAP systems including components such as the gateway server, message server and SAProuter, targeted by 10KBLAZE.

Together, CVA and Solution Manager provide an integrated platform to secure your business-critical SAP systems against 10KBLAZE and other exploits.

Thu, Jun 6, 2019
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EDT

Webinar Recording: Security Analytics with SAP Web Intelligence

Layer Seven on December 17, 2018

Watch the webinar replay to learn how to visualize security risks in your SAP systems using interactive reports in SAP Web Intelligence. Powered by the BusinessObjects platform, Web Intelligence connects directly to data sources in SAP Solution Manager to convey system vulnerabilities, missing security notes and open alerts using dynamic charts and graphs and detailed tables.

Join the global leaders in security monitoring with SAP Solution Manager to learn how to:

– Discover security vulnerabilities
– Manage missing patches
– Detect alerts for security incidents
– Collaborate and track remediation efforts using comments
– Filter and sort report data
– Export and share results
– Access reports remotely

We will also demonstrate how you can trial Web Intelligence using Layer Seven’s cloud platform.

Watch Now

Secure, Patch & Respond: Security Analytics with SAP Web Intelligence

Layer Seven on November 20, 2018

SAP Web Intelligence enables users to visualize and manage security risks in SAP systems using interactive reports delivered through an intuitive web interface. Powered by the BusinessObjects platform, Web Intelligence connects directly to data sources in SAP Solution Manager to convey system vulnerabilities, missing security notes and open alerts using dynamic charts and graphs and detailed tables.

Animated charts summarize risks by system, location, priority and other dimensions. Results can be filtered and sorted to focus on specific areas. Users can comment on report elements for collaboration, decision-making and tracking remediation efforts. Reports can be exported to Excel, HTML and PDF. Reports can also be accessed remotely using the mobile app for SAP BusinessObjects.

The security reports are comprised of five distinct sections. The first section includes a series of charts that summarize risks across three dimensions: vulnerabilities, security notes, and alerts. The results can be filtered to focus on single or multiple systems.

The second section includes trend charts, bar graphs, geo-maps and bubble charts that break down the results for each dimension.

The remaining sections convey detailed findings and empower users to secure SAP systems against cyber threats by discovering and removing vulnerabilities, applying patches, and responding to alerts for suspected security breaches.

To learn more, contact Layer Seven Security. You can also request a free trial for security reporting with SAP Web Intelligence using Layer Seven’s cloud platform.