Unmasking Hidden OK Code Exploits in SAP Systems: A Hidden Threat to Your Security

SAP application breaches are more common than you might think, and one of the prime causes is unsecured ABAP code. Backdoors can creep into your code, either intentionally planted by malicious actors or through outdated, obsolete code and configuration errors. Such backdoors can become embedded in the massive number of ABAP code lines necessary for SAP customization. Due to their elusive nature, these potential security vulnerabilities are difficult to monitor manually and can easily go unnoticed by security teams.

A notable example of such a backdoor is the Hidden OK Code exploit.

The Danger of Hidden OK Codes

Hidden OK Codes can significantly compromise SAP security. They work by defining specific action values that trigger hidden SAP program actions, effectively sidestepping standard access controls. In addition, hackers leveraging this exploit can access and edit vendor payment information because hidden routines are bypassing authorization checks, meaning the hacker’s changes are often undetected by routine monitoring and auditing processes. This can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data, manipulation of critical processes, and substantial financial fraud.

The Anatomy of a Hidden OK Code Breach

Let’s look at how a Hidden OK Code breach works. Here is an example showing how a user with display-only access can hijack a vendor payment and embezzle millions.

Is Your Company at Risk?

Such a scenario could be playing out right under your nose. Without automated solutions to continuously monitor and secure against backdoors like Hidden OK Codes, you risk exposure to these exploits. Are there lines of ABAP code slipping into production that haven’t been properly vetted?

Securing Your SAP Systems with Pathlock

At Pathlock, we provide the solution you need to protect your critical SAP systems from such threats. Our solution ensures that emerging ABAP code backdoors are continuously secured and cannot be exploited by hackers. With Pathlock’s Cybersecurity Suite, robust automation and tailored solutions for crucial SAP security initiatives enable you to protect your business-critical SAP systems holistically. By layering continuous scanning of ABAP code for vulnerabilities with automated threat detection and response, these complementary solutions address SAP security risks at the root cause by ensuring code vulnerabilities do not make it into production and that any threats are detected and remediated in real time.

Pathlock’s Key Capabilities that Protect Against Hidden OK Codes:

• Real-Time Threat Detection: Pathlock continuously monitors your system configurations, authorizations, security, policy and change logs, and system downloads for threats in real time. This enables a proactive, continuous monitoring approach to threat detection and remediation.
• Robust Data Sourcing: Pathlock continuously scans your SAP applications and identifies suspicious activity and threats from over 60 data sources out of the box. This ensures robust data sourcing for informed identification and analysis of threat events.
• Automated Threat Identification: Automation enables you to create alerts for critical and complex events by automatically recognizing combinations of individually non-critical events that can reveal previously undetectable, complex threats.
• Rule-Based Threat Filtering: A customizable engine enables prioritized response with rule-based filtering and alerts, enabling you to focus on remediating your most business-critical threats first.
• Automated Code Reviews: Eliminates manual ABAP code testing and scanning for security vulnerabilities. Enables identification of vulnerable code errors and backdoors in real-time, ensuring hackers do not have a chance to exploit vulnerabilities.
• Security-Tailored Test Cases: Pathlock delivers over 70 security critical test cases that extend the scope of SAP’s standard ABAP Test Cockpit (ATC) solution to improve security analysis and vulnerability and code error detection. These test cases can also be customized per your organization’s unique security requirements.
• Integrated Security Dashboards and SIEM Integration: Native, real-time dashboards provide an integrated security monitoring platform for your SAP application ecosystem to deliver a complete view of the threat landscape. This customizable dashboard contains widgets tailored to easily report security posture to decision makers. In addition, you can consolidate and integrate all security incidents detected in your SAP environment with your external SIEM solution for data alignment across all security solutions in your IT application stack.

To safeguard your business and learn more about how Pathlock can bolster your SAP security program, get in touch with us today to set up a demo. Be proactive about your system’s security and stay a step ahead of potential breaches.