Sap KernelApplication · Sap

CVE-2018-2433

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-07-10
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
SAP Gateway (SAP KERNEL 32 NUC, SAP KERNEL 32 Unicode, SAP KERNEL 64 NUC, SAP KERNEL 64 Unicode 7.21, 7.21EXT, 7.22 and 7.22EXT; SAP KERNEL 7.21, 7.22, 7.45, 7.49 and 7.53) allows an attacker to prevent legitimate users from accessing a service, either by crashing or flooding the service.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

SAP Gateway contains a denial-of-service vulnerability that allows remote attackers to disrupt service availability by either crashing the Gateway service or flooding it with requests, affecting multiple SAP Kernel versions (7.21-7.53).

MitigationApply the relevant SAP Security Note to patch the Gateway vulnerability and implement network-level rate limiting or filtering to mitigate flooding attempts.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Sap KernelApplication
Affected:= 7.21= 7.21ext= 7.22= 7.22ext= 7.45= 7.49= 7.53

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify SAP Kernel version
    Execute 'sapkernel -version' or check the kernel directory for the version file (typically in /sapmnt/<SID>/exe or the kernel path defined in your SAP system). Compare the version number to the affected list: 7.21, 7.21ext, 7.22, 7.22ext, 7.45, 7.49, or 7.53.
    Affected if The installed kernel version matches exactly one of these versions: 7.21, 7.21ext, 7.22, 7.22ext, 7.45, 7.49, or 7.53.
  2. Confirm SAP Gateway component is active
    Check for running SAP Gateway processes using system commands (such as 'ps -ef | grep gw' on Unix or Task Manager on Windows) or by querying the SAP Message Server for gateway availability. Look for processes named 'gwrd' or check SMGW transaction in SAP.
    Affected if SAP Gateway processes are running on the system.
  3. Verify external gateway exposure
    Review SAP Gateway listener configuration in the SAP system profile (parameter 'gw/acl_mode' and 'gw/listen_port') and check network accessibility of the gateway port (typically 3300/tcp or as configured). Use netstat or similar tools to confirm the gateway is bound to accessible network interfaces.
    Affected if SAP Gateway is listening on externally accessible network interfaces (not localhost-only or firewalled).

You are affected if your SAP system runs Kernel version 7.21, 7.21ext, 7.22, 7.22ext, 7.45, 7.49, or 7.53 AND the SAP Gateway component is active and reachable on the network.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply the relevant SAP Security Note to patch the Gateway vulnerability and implement network-level rate limiting or filtering to mitigate flooding attempts.

Fix this in Sap Kernel Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
12.0 hours of engineering $2,080
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,328.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-2433 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-2433 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data