Overview
This blog post will delve into the critical cybersecurity vulnerability, CVE-2025-42967, which significantly impacts SAP S/4HANA and SAP SCM Characteristic Propagation. This vulnerability potentially enables a user-level attacker to execute arbitrary code remotely, hence gaining full control over the affected SAP system. Given the vast number of organizations worldwide that rely on SAP products for their everyday operations, this vulnerability could potentially have far-reaching and severe implications, including system compromise and data leakage.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-42967
Severity: Critical (9.9)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: User
User Interaction: Required
Impact: Potential system compromise, data leakage, and high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the application.
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
SAP S/4HANA | All versions up to the latest patch
SAP SCM Characteristic Propagation | All versions up to the latest patch
How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability lies in the code reporting feature of the affected SAP products. An attacker with user-level privileges can exploit this vulnerability by creating a new report containing malicious code. When this report is run, the malicious code is executed, potentially giving the attacker full control over the affected SAP system. This control could lead to a complete system compromise, including unauthorized access to sensitive data, disruption of service, and potential data leakage.
Conceptual Example Code
The following is a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. The malicious payload in this case would be a custom code that the attacker embeds into a report.
POST /create_report HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer {User_Token}
{
"report_name": "custom_report",
"report_code": "{malicious_code}"
}In this example, the `{malicious_code}` could be designed to perform actions that compromise the system’s integrity or confidentiality, such as altering data, creating unauthorized administrative accounts, or exfiltrating sensitive data.
Mitigation and Prevention
To mitigate this vulnerability, it is highly recommended to apply the vendor-supplied patch as soon as possible. If immediate patching is not feasible, a temporary mitigation strategy could involve the use of a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) to monitor and potentially block malicious traffic. However, these measures are not foolproof and should be used as a temporary solution until the patch can be applied. It is also advisable to limit the privileges of user accounts and enforce Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP) to reduce the potential impact of this vulnerability.