Detect real-world attack paths in your mission-critical SAP systems with an approved SAP Services Partner.
SAP Penetration Testing is the ultimate validation of your organization’s security posture. Unlike standard vulnerability scans, our ethical hacking service simulates real-world attack vectors to reveal the true business impact of a breach.
As an approved SAP Services Partner, Layer Seven Security conducts tests in strict accordance with the SAP Rules of Engagement, covering both traditional on-premise landscapes and SAP RISE/Cloud ERP environments. We identify, exploit, and prioritize risks across your application and infrastructure layers, ensuring compliance with PCI-DSS, NIST, IT-SOX and other standards.
SAP penetration testing should be performed during major migrations, upgrades, new deployments, significant configuration or interface changes, after remediation or incidents, and periodically for business-critical systems to validate security as the environment evolves.
S/4HANA, SAP RISE, and Cloud migrations.
System upgrades, enhancement packs, kernel changes, and infrastructure changes.
Validation for security remediation and ongoing compiance with internal control requirements.
Our experienced security specialists employ a combination of manual and automated techniques to mimic the behavior of threat actors. The methodology demonstrates the real-world impact of cyber attacks without modifying or disrupting SAP systems.
Mapping SAP targets within your network and identifying active services, ports, and work processes.
Detecting misconfigurations, default credentials, and flaws in SAP components.
Formulating a targeted plan based on your unique system architecture.
Systematically attempting to compromise servers and access sensitive data to prove the exploitability of a finding.
Detailed documentation of every finding, including proof of concept and remediation steps.
We provide comprehensive coverage by testing from multiple vantage points:
The DREAD Risk Rating Framework: To ensure your team focuses on the most critical risks, we prioritize every finding using the DREAD model:
Removal of hidden backdoors and injection points in custom developments.
How easy is it for an attacker to repeat the exploit?
How much effort/skill is required to execute the attack?
How many users or systems are impacted?
How easy is it for an attacker to find the vulnerability?
Testing in a cloud-hosted environment requires a specialized approach. For customers running SAP RISE or Cloud ERP, penetration testing is a critical component of the Shared Responsibility Model.
Testing for SAP RISE should be performed by approved SAP Services Partner such as Layer Seven Security.
Our tests are conducted in full alignment with the security recommendations for S/4HANA and hardening requirements from SAP Enterprise Cloud Services (ECS).
We follow the SAP Rules of Engagement to ensure RISE cloud environments are tested safely and securely.
Discover exploitable weaknesses, reveal the business impact, and strengthen assurance against security standards and compliance requirements.
SAP penetration testing helps organizations identify vulnerabilities that are not just theoretical but actually discoverable and exploitable in business-critical SAP systems, which makes it valuable for validating real-world risk rather than relying only on configuration reviews. It can reveal the business impact of successful attacks, prioritize remediation based on what can truly be exploited, benchmark defenses against SAP recommendations and industry standards, support gap assessments for frameworks such as PCI-DSS, NIST, and IT-SOX, and provide evidence-based guidance for fixing weaknesses before they are exploited by attackers. Third-party penetration testing is a standard control in SAP service agreements for SAP RISE and Cloud ERP. reinforcing its value as a practical assurance activity.
A vulnerability scan is an automated process that identifies potential flaws. A penetration test is an active simulation where a human expert attempts to discover and exploit flaws to determine the actual business impact and depth of the vulnerability. Both are complementary. Vulnerability scans are generally more comprehensive than penetration testing. However, penetration testing can reveal the business impact of vulnerabilities.
SAP penetration testing is different from standard IT penetration testing because SAP environments have unique architectures, protocols, interfaces, authorization models, and business logic that general penetration testers often do not understand in depth. Effective SAP testing requires knowledge of SAP-specific attack surfaces such as RFC, ICF services, SAP GUI, Fiori, Gateway, OData, custom ABAP code, HANA, and security configuration, as well as an understanding of how technical weaknesses can affect critical business processes and sensitive enterprise data.Unlike conventional IT testing, SAP penetration testing also has to account for the complexity and sensitivity of mission-critical ERP systems, where careless testing can disrupt operations. As a result, it typically requires more specialized tools, stricter rules of engagement, and deeper knowledge of SAP applications, integrations, and business risk than a standard network or web application penetration test.
Using an approved SAP Services Partner for SAP penetration testing helps ensure testing is performed by specialists with proven SAP expertise, aligned to SAP-specific requirements, and able to assess mission-critical SAP environments safely, accurately, and with lower operational risk.
Yes. SAP RISE/ Cloud ERP environments are subject to specific Rules of Engagement. As an SAP Services Partner, Layer Seven Security ensures all testing is coordinated and performed in compliance with SAP’s cloud security policies.
Yes. Penetration testing can validate the detection capabilities of SIEM and other solutions that are monitoring SAP environments.
Penetration tests typically require 5-10 days, depending on the number of targets. The tests are usually performed by a single resource, connecting remotely to the target SAP solutions. Network access is required for the testing.
Download our Free Guide to Security for SAP RISE.
Download our Free Guide to Securing SAP Systems to learn the proven methods for proactively detecting and removing vulnerabilities.
