SAP Security 2026: The Year of Acceleration - and Accountability

Predictions from Ivan Mans, CTO of SecurityBridge

2025 was the year SAP security went mainstream. Exploits made headlines, AI hit both sides of the chessboard, and RISE with SAP reshaped how teams think about “ownership.”

So, what’s next? Here’s 7 predictions for SAP security – the good, the bad, and what it means for CISOs and SAP leaders everywhere.

1. SAP Vulnerabilities: The Storm Isn’t Passing

Reality: 2025 broke records for critical SAP flaws, and the data tells a clear story: this isn’t a spike – it’s a sustained upward curve. SAP’s codebase is huge, deeply integrated, and riddled with legacy components, making new discoveries inevitable.

Prediction: 2026 will bring even more critical CVEs, shorter patch windows, and faster weaponization. AI-assisted exploit generation now means attackers can move from disclosure to attack in hours, not weeks.

What to do:

• Treat SAP Security Notes like zero-days.
• Automate risk scoring and patch scheduling.
• Use continuous detection and correlation to close the response gap.

“In 2026, your patch window for SAP vulnerabilities will shrink from weeks to hours. Automate or fall behind.”

2. RISE with SAP: The Shared-Responsibility Reality Check

RISE with SAP adoption increased in 2025 as companies move away from on-prem. The misconception? That RISE equals full security coverage.

Reality: SAP secures the platform; customers secure everything above it – data, configurations, integrations, and access. In most breaches we investigate, the weak points aren’t SAP’s infrastructure – they’re custom code, risky authorizations, or misconfigurations still owned by the customer.

Prediction: 2026 will see the first high-profile RISE-related security incident caused not by SAP, but by a customer misunderstanding the shared model.

What to do:

• Publish a RACI for your SAP-Customer security split.
• Review assumptions around patching (SAP doesn’t cover everything).
• Build continuous monitoring for the “above-the-stack” layers.

3. On-Premise SAP: Still Here, Still Risky

Reality: SAP’s roadmap says cloud-first; reality says hybrid for years to come. Extended maintenance through 2030 has given ECC customers breathing room – and many are taking it.

Prediction: By the end of 2026, nearly half of SAP customers will still be running at least part of their core systems on-prem. Complex migrations, high costs, and limited talent will slow the transformation to S/4HANA more than any deadline extension.

What to do:

• Keep legacy ECC systems under strict patch discipline.
• Layer modern detection and vulnerability management tools over old platforms.
• Don’t postpone security just because you postponed migration.

“Extended support is not extended immunity.”

4. AI in SAP Security: Friend and Foe

AI has officially entered the SAP security arena – and it’s rewriting the playbook.

Reality as an ally: AI now drives smarter anomaly detection, predictive patch prioritization, and faster incident response. In SecurityBridge, for instance, we’re using AI to scan ABAP code and detect risky patterns in seconds – something that once required hours of manual review.

Reality as an adversary: Attackers are using AI to reverse-engineer SAP Notes, generate exploits, and craft convincing phishing or deep-fake messages. We’ve already seen proof-of-concept AIs create working SAP exploits from CVE descriptions in under 10 minutes.

Prediction: By the end of 2026, AI-driven attacks on SAP will no longer be theoretical. The arms race has begun.

What to do:

• Leverage AI defensively: anomaly detection, automated code scanning, and AI-assisted SOC analysis.
• Patch faster – exploit automation leaves no grace period.
• Educate users: AI-powered social engineering is getting terrifyingly good.

“AI won’t replace your SAP security team – it will amplify it. But the attackers are amplifying too.”

5. The SAP Basis Role Evolves

Reality: The “Basis is dead” rumor? Greatly exaggerated. What’s dying is the manual, on-prem, hands-on version. What’s being born is the cloud-savvy, automation-driven SAP Platform Engineer.

Prediction: In 2026, Basis admins become orchestration specialists, managing RISE environments, automating tasks, embedding security into CI/CD pipelines, and working hand in hand with cloud and SOC teams.

What to do:

• Upskill Basis pros in cloud operations, identity, and DevSecOps.
• Make security a core competency, not a separate silo.
• Keep the human expertise – automate the mundane.

“The future Basis admin doesn’t rack servers; they orchestrate them — securely, and in the cloud.”

6. Outsourcing SAP Work: Zero-Trust or Zero-Control

Reality: Outsourced SAP development is surging as companies chase scarce skills. But third-party access without zero-trust controls is a ticking bomb.

Prediction: In 2026, more organizations will suffer incidents traced to unmonitored external developers or consultants rather than insider threats.

What to do:

• Enforce least privilege and session recording for all third parties.
• Apply automated code scanning and mandatory peer reviews.
• Treat every developer – internal or external – as untrusted until verified.

At SecurityBridge, we apply these same principles internally: all code is automatically scanned, reviewed, and audited. Freelancers are part of the process, but never outside the guardrails. And we acquired TrustBroker to enforce authentication when it matters most to our customers.

“A freelancer is just another user – trust is optional, verification is mandatory.”

7. SAP Logs Finally Join the SOC

Reality: For too long, SAP has been the blind spot in enterprise security operations. In 2026, that ends.

Prediction: By next year, most mature organizations will stream normalized SAP logs into SIEMs like Microsoft Sentinel. Why now? AI-driven parsing, regulatory pressure (think NIS2), and better integrations mean SAP telemetry can finally be understood – and correlated – in real time.

What to do:

• Normalize and filter SAP logs before sending them to your SIEM.
• Focus on quality, not quantity: prioritize critical security events.
• Correlate SAP data with identity, cloud, and endpoint signals for full context.

At SecurityBridge, our integration with Microsoft Sentinel is turning once “messy” SAP data into actionable intelligence – so SOCs can see SAP risks alongside IT risks for the first time.

“If your SOC can’t see SAP, your most valuable systems are still in the dark.”

Closing Thoughts 

2026 won’t make SAP security easier – but it will make it smarter.
AI, cloud transformation, and a maturing security culture are converging to redefine how we protect the systems that run the world’s business processes.

My advice: embrace acceleration but stay accountable.

SAP security is no longer about keeping up – it’s about staying ahead.