Escalating Patch Volumes: The New Normal?
Even the better resourced SAP teams find it nearly impossible to apply every SAP security note within the recommended timeframe. Most aim to apply the more serious ones within a couple of weeks, but at times this, too, is difficult.
Unfortunately, it looks like its about to get harder. SAP Security Notes are coming down the pipeline at an increasing rate.
Over the past 24 months, the average number of SAP Security Notes released on patch Tuesday has more than doubled—from 10 notes per cycle to over 22. Several months have seen even higher spikes, with July 2025 reaching a record 31 notes.
HotNews and critical advisories are also surging.
The average number of critical fixes per release has also doubled, rising from 2 per release to more than 4. In July alone, SAP issued 7 HotNews notes, many with CVSS scores exceeding 9.0. These aren’t just technical advisories - they’re urgent calls to action.
For those SAP teams already struggling to keep up, this isn't good news.
Operational Reality
This numbers impact operations.
Security teams must triage vulnerabilities, coordinate across business units, and ensure compliance—all while avoiding disruption to critical operations. And the remediation time lines are getting shorter.
The bad guys are getting smarter, are they are finding more to work with. SAP systems are becoming a hot target
Many organisations still rely on manual patch triage, spreadsheet tracking, and reactive workflows. This leads to delays, missed patches, and increased exposure windows—especially for high-impact vulnerabilities.
Regression risk is another concern.
Even well-intentioned patches can break business processes. And in regulated industries, delayed remediation can result in audit findings, reputational damage, or non-compliance penalties.
The result?
Security teams may soon be underwater, struggling to keep pace with the flood of vulnerabilities while maintaining operational integrity.
Tooling for Resilience
Should this trend continue, to keep SAP security teams heads above water, and the business secure, a well-considered tools based process may be required.
Automation, monitoring, and governance solutions that streamline patch management and reduce risk are available.
Automation & Orchestration Tools:
Tools like Rev-Trac Automated Change Control , help automate patch workflows and transport management to reduce manual effort and improve traceability across patch cycles.
Analysis & Testing Tools:
Tools like smarterSec' s Patch Impact Analyzer can short cut the analysis and testing process by providing visibility to accelerate the triage process, target testing, and reduce remediation time.
Monitoring & Validation Tools:
Validating patch effectiveness is a challenge, as is ongoing monitoring. Tools like the smarterSec Security Platform validate patch effectiveness, detect residual risks, and monitor configuration drift.
Strategic Roadmap for SAP Security Teams
However, a boots and all tools approach as a first step may not be the best first step.
Many SAP teams don't yet have a formal risk-based approach to security patch management. Often its ad hoc, based on criticality and resource availability. A typical reactive approach.
Here is an approximate roadmap to move from a reactive to a proactive strategic approach to SAP security note management.
This roadmap isn’t just about automation, although it will help. It’s about ensuring the team’s readiness to cope with an increasing number of time-critical SAP Notes with limited resources.
The Way Forward
SAP vulnerabilities aren’t going away. If anything, they’re becoming identified more frequently, are more severe, and even more complex.
The question isn’t whether your organisation will face another barrage of critical HotNews SAP Security Notes; it’s whether your team is equipped to respond effectively with a reasonable time window.
By investing in automation, embedding a risk-based process, and aligning patching with enterprise risk and compliance goals, SAP security teams can transform their approach.
They can reduce exposure, improve audit readiness, and build resilience into their operations.
About Leg Up Software
Leg Up Software is an expert in SAP IT security and automation.
From SAP basis operations to SAP security, we know the solutions landscape very well and have already done the legwork to identify the best available solutions and services to help.
We have excellent relationships with a wide range of SAP-specific solutions vendors to meet your automation and security objectives.
It’s about maximising your resources, minimising your risk, and delivering advice that matters.
Why not schedule a time to start the conversation?
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