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Metaverse Security and Privacy: An Overview

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Metaverse is a living space and cyberspace that realizes the process of virtualizing and digitizing the real world. It integrates a plethora of existing technologies with the goal of being able to map the real world, even beyond the real world. Metaverse has a bright future and is expected to have many applications in various scenarios. The support of the Metaverse is based on numerous related technologies becoming mature. Hence, there is no doubt that the security risks of the development of the Metaverse may be more prominent and more complex. We present some Metaverse-related technologies and some potential security and privacy issues in the Metaverse. We present current solutions for Metaverse security and privacy derived from these technologies. In addition, we also raise some unresolved questions about the potential Metaverse. To summarize, this survey provides an in-depth review of the security and privacy issues raised by key technologies in Metaverse applications. We hope that this survey will provide insightful research directions and prospects for the Metaverse's development, particularly in terms of security and privacy protection in the Metaverse.
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2022 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data)
978-1-6654-8045-1/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE 2950
Metaverse Security and Privacy: An Overview
Zefeng Chen1,2, Jiayang Wu3, Wensheng Gan1,2, Zhenlian Qi4
1Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China
2Pazhou Lab, Guangzhou 510330, China
3Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang 524088, China
4Guangdong Eco-Engineering Polytechnic, Guangzhou 510520, China
Email: {czf1027, csjywu1, wsgan001}@gmail.com, qzlhit@foxmail.com
Abstract—Metaverse is a living space and cyberspace that
realizes the process of virtualizing and digitizing the real world.
It integrates a plethora of existing technologies with the goal of
being able to map the real world, even beyond the real world.
Metaverse has a bright future and is expected to have many
applications in various scenarios. The support of the Metaverse is
based on numerous related technologies becoming mature. Hence,
there is no doubt that the security risks of the development of
the Metaverse may be more prominent and more complex. We
present some Metaverse-related technologies and some potential
security and privacy issues in the Metaverse. We present current
solutions for Metaverse security and privacy derived from these
technologies. In addition, we also raise some unresolved ques-
tions about the potential Metaverse. To summarize, this survey
provides an in-depth review of the security and privacy issues
raised by key technologies in Metaverse applications. We hope
that this survey will provide insightful research directions and
prospects for the Metaverse’s development, particularly in terms
of security and privacy protection in the Metaverse.
Index Terms—Metaverse, cyber, security, privacy, overview
I. INT ROD UC TI ON
The development of computer science has improved the
quality of human life and provided convenience for humans’
daily lives. As a possible future product of computer science,
the Metaverse has been widely used in the scientific commu-
nity [1]. Metaverse is a post-reality space that can realize the
combination of physical reality and digital virtuality. It has a
high application value [2]. The Metaverse has a high degree
of freedom, which allows users to build and transform in
this space. The Metaverse concept evolved from the concepts
of ”Metaverse” and ”avatar”, which were mentioned in the
foreign science fiction work ”Avalanche” in 1992 [3]. From the
1970s to the 1990s, a large number of open-world multiplayer
games appeared and affected a generation. In fact, the open
world, which can be understood as the game itself, formed
the early basis of the Metaverse. In 2003, there was a game
called Second Life [4], which was a bit of a liberation from
the idea of the real world. In this game, people could live in
a virtual world and adjust their identities by having their own
Doppelgnger. Players couldn’t make it come true in the real
world. On October 28, 2021, the US social media company
Facebook was renamed as Meta. 2021 is also known as the first
year of the Metaverse. Today, the Metaverse is still gradually
Corresponding author.
evolving and enriching. The concept is gradually evolving with
the way humans communicate, as well as the development and
integration of various technologies.
As a global user-created game platform, Roblox1identifies
eight elements of the Metaverse: identity, friends, immersion,
low latency, diversity, anytime, anywhere, economic systems,
and civilization [5]. In fact, these concepts are vague, which
means that the Metaverse hasn’t been completely defined
yet. Despite all this, the Metaverse still has various core
technologies to promote its realization and development [6].
For example, the Metaverse [7]–[9] is inseparable from big
data [10], [11], artificial intelligence (AI) [12], interaction
technology [13], digital twins [14], cloud computing [15],
Internet of Things (IoT) [16], blockchain [17], and so on. To
be specific, it builds the economic system based on blockchain
[17], provides an immersive experience based on interactive
technology [13], generates a mirror image of the real world
based on digital twins [14], realizes data computing, storage,
processing and sharing based on cloud computing [15], and
realizes interconnected intelligence based on AI [12] and IoT
technology [16]. With such a grand vision, the Metaverse
is bound to bring about many changes in human life. For
example, in games, the Metaverse will provide an immersive
gaming experience. In education, classrooms are everywhere
and are no longer restricted by geographical factors. With the
blessing of the Metaverse, travel enthusiasts can enjoy the
fun of traveling without leaving their homes, and they are no
longer restricted by the COVID-19 virus in the post-epidemic
era. The Metaverse can make human lives better.
Although the blueprint of the Metaverse is beautiful, with
the rapid development of Metaverse-related technologies, it is
foreseeable that more problems will follow [18]. The most
important issues are security and privacy in the Metaverse,
and they are about everyone’s property and privacy protection
in the future [19], [20]. The Metaverse Security Governance
Shanghai Initiative proposes eight goals and principles and
their basic requirements, including virtual and real progress,
order protection, robust development, standardization of insti-
tutions, respect for privacy, safeguarding the future, rationality
and pragmatism, and openness and collaboration. Existing
Metaverse-related technologies have emerged to counter some
1https://developer.roblox.com/
2022 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data) | 978-1-6654-8045-1/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/BigData55660.2022.10021112
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2951
Metaverse
Interactive
Technology
Provides immersive
experience
Artificial
Intelligence
Technology
Achieve smarter
solutions and less
manual labor
Cloud Service
and IoT
Technology
Realizes the high-
speed operation of
massive terminal
and big data
Digital Twins
Technology
Generates a mirror
image of the real
world
Blockchain
Technology
Builds the
economic system
Fig. 1. Metaverse-related technologies and their impact on the Metaverse.
of the issues of security and privacy in the Metaverse, but
some remain unsolved.
In this paper, we first introduce the advantages and applica-
tion scenarios of the Metaverse and propose the composition of
the related technologies of the Metaverse. And then, we raise
some potential security and privacy concerns in the Metaverse
in detail. Besides, we further discuss the current solutions for
the security and privacy of the Metaverse from the perspective
of related technologies. Finally, we highlight some potential
unresolved questions about the security and privacy issues
raised by key technologies in Metaverse applications.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. In Section
II, we introduce the strengths, applications, and composition
of related technologies in the Metaverse. In Section III, we
describe the security and privacy problems of the Meta-
verse and how related technologies address these problems.
In Section IV, based on the above sections, we raise and
discuss possible unresolved security and privacy issues in the
Metaverse. Finally, we provide our conclusions in Section V.
II. ME TAVE RS E
A. Advantages from Metaverse
The Metaverse will play an important role in human life in
the future because it offers a variety of novel experiences [21].
It has many advantages and opens up many new possibilities
[22], which we will describe below:
1) Strong virtual identity: In the Metaverse, the sense
of virtual identity substitution is unprecedentedly powerful.
Furthermore, virtual activities in the Metaverse can help users
develop a stronger sense of self [23]. In the Metaverse, the
virtual identity is consistent throughout the space, and the
customized avatar can produce a sense of uniqueness and
immersive reality [24].
2) Immersive experience: With augmented reality (AR)2
and virtual reality (VR)3, users can have a sensory-immersive
experience in the Metaverse [24], [25]. For example, when
experiencing a fire, users can see the light of the fire in the
sense of vision, smell the burning fire in the sense of smell,
hear the sound in the auditory sense, and feel the temperature
increase in the sense of touch.
3) Bring a wider range of social activities: The Metaverse
can provide rich online social scenes and ignore the distance
between people. Based on a strong sense of identity and
immersive experience, people’s social activities are no longer
limited to ordinary social activities and can widely try various
novel activities [26]. Moreover, friends who are far away from
a foreign country can also participate in such social activities
regardless of geographic distance.
4) Virtual economic widely circulate: Today, most of our
virtual currencies are circulated in games and cannot be
withdrawn or consumed across platforms. The Metaverse has
an economic system similar to the real world [27]. The user’s
virtual property is more easily guaranteed than on the gaming
platform and can be widely circulated without the constraints
of the platform.
5) Openness to free creation: The Metaverse is all-inclusive
and includes various things. As a result, user creation and
innovation are critical to the Metaverse’s updating iteration
[28]. The Metaverse opens up users’ creation as the leading
role. Thus, the content of the Metaverse becomes richer and
more striking.
B. Main Changes in Metaverse
The future world has brought richer possibilities precisely
because of the aforementioned benefits of the Metaverse. The
coming Metaverse will undoubtedly bring great changes to
human life and social and economic development. Just as 5G
led to the development of unmanned driving technology, it
is believed that the Metaverse will lead to new technology
applications in various industries [29]. The changes brought
about by the Metaverse can be summarized as ”three new”,
which are a series of new technologies, new forms, and new
business models. The main changes are as follows:
1) Technological innovation and cooperation: The emer-
gence of the Metaverse can further improve the efficiency
of social production from the perspective of technological
innovation and cooperation [30]. For example, in the post-
pandemic era, many production studies are at a standstill.
However, if there were a space like Metaverse that could
replicate the real world, then production research could be
carried out in the Metaverse. Besides, from the perspective
of technological cooperation, experts in the same research
field from different companies and even different countries
can also do research together in the Metaverse, which will
greatly promote technological cooperation and innovation.
2https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented reality
3https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual reality
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2952
2) Work environment: After the Metaverse has matured,
the environment in which people work will be changed.
Obviously, people will work in the virtual world instead of
the real world. As the Metaverse matured, the virtual world
could duplicate or even surpass the real world [31]. Hence, a
lot of work can be done in the virtual world. What’s more,
when a task in the virtual world goes wrong, the ability to
return to the previous step, as in the game, reduces the cost
of getting it wrong.
3) Contribution to creative industry: The Metaverse can
promote the derivation of the creative industry [?]. For ex-
ample, the Metaverse will undoubtedly boost the consumption
of cultural products like games [32], comics [33] and science
fiction movies [34]. As the predecessors of the Metaverse, their
development has promoted the development of the Metaverse
to a certain extent. When the Metaverse develops, these kinds
of products are bound to be very popular.
4) Cultural tourism and information consumption: It is an
important trend in the tourism industry to promote cultural
tourism projects and greatly stimulate information consump-
tion [35]. Consumer behavior is driven by cultural tourism
and related cultural industries. However, the cultural tourism
industry is suppressed due to the raging epidemic. With
the improvement of AR/VR equipment through interactive
technology, travelers in the Metaverse can enjoy the joy of
immersive travel. It will also promote information consump-
tion to a certain extent.
5) Promotion of smart cities: With the support of cloud
computing and digital twins technology, the completion of the
Metaverse will promote the construction of smart cities and
innovate the social governance model. Smart cities connect
facilities through technologies such as AI and IoT, aiming to
provide better services to citizens and better manage cities
[36]. The Metaverse can provide the following support for
smart cities: global monitoring, simulated city governance
decision-making, emergency event handling decision-making,
and simulation of urban planning and construction [29].
C. Application Scenario
Note that digital services have brought great convenience to
human life in the 21st century. The Metaverse hopes to use
more mature and diversified technologies to further improve
the quality of life.
1) Handle official business: Recently, home offices have
become the norm of lives. People can complete their tasks
given by the company at home through the Internet. How-
ever, there are some obvious disadvantages, such as diffi-
culty in collaboration and low efficiency of communication.
Some manufacturers are committed to solving these problems.
Microsoft presented the project Mesh for Microsoft Teams
in which users can complete the tasks of the job in the
virtual space by combining holographic projection, such as
holding meetings, sending information, and processing shared
documents. In addition, NVIDIA presented the Omniverse
cloud service, through which designers across the world can
complete real-time collaborative design without time or space
constraints.
2) Education: The combination of Metaverse and online
education provide possibility to make up for the shortcomings
of online and offline education. For young children, teachers
can define their own classroom models according to the needs
of the curriculum. It allows students to switch to different
teaching environments without being limited by time or space.
Higher education students and workers must prioritize the
development of practical skills. In the case of Inwak Meta
University, it was founded to teach employability training
through a virtual immersion platform.
3) Tourism: People like traveling, mostly because they like
to learn about the cultural landscape of different cities. In the
future, Metaverse tourism may bring travelers totally different
experiences. For example, based on the AI response system,
it can answer all kinds of questions about the scenic spots on
the journey in the guidance service. In addition, people can
reproduce the historical scenes, and travel enthusiasts can talk
to the famous historical figures through Metaverse. Moreover,
the interactive activities will be increased so that they can
explore the original cave.
4) Social intercourse: At present, the products of the Meta-
verse social intercourse concept are mainly used in the gaming
field. For example, Second Life was created in 2003. This game
integrates plenty of details from real life into the game. The
attraction of this game is that the players can start a second
life in the virtual world as their avatars. The players can do
some social activities, such as making friends and creating and
trading goods.
5) Shopping: There are two scenarios that are widely used
in shopping. When buying clothes, with the VR equipment, the
consumer can choose their favorite clothes in the appropriate
sizes, which can be projected onto the body. Furthermore, they
can change the background and observe the dressing effect
in various spaces. When buying cars, the consumer can see
the details of the cars from different directions, which is an
important indicator of whether to go to physical stores.
D. Technological Composition
Since 2021, the concept of the Metaverse has attracted
more investors’ attention. They invested a lot in the com-
panies to develop the Metaverse products. Investors are full
of confidence in building the Metaverse, which is inseparable
from their trust in current technology. It is possible to create
more Metaverse products by combining current technologies,
including artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, interaction,
cloud services, the Internet of Things (IoT), and digital twins.
1) Blockchain: Actually, the blockchain is a vital part of the
Metaverse. The technical value of the blockchain will continue
to promote the deep integration of the real economy and the
digital economy in the Metaverse, providing an open and
transparent collaboration mechanism for the Metaverse [17].
In particular, the decentralized feature of blockchain makes
value creation and value transfer in the Metaverse more free
and efficient [37].
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2953
2) Interaction: At present, the most popular interactive
technologies are augmented reality (AR) technology and vir-
tual reality (VR) technology [38]. The task of AR technology
is to combine virtual and real objects, realize real-time in-
teraction, and superimpose computer-generated virtual objects
into the real world [39]. The task of VR technology is to
create a virtual three-dimensional interactive scene, allowing
users to experience the virtual world with the help of the
device, so that the user is immersed in the virtual world
created by the device without feeling violated [40]. Because
AR and VR interactive technology are the keys to achieving
an immersive experience, they are crucial technologies of the
Metaverse. At present, Facebook (Meta)4has started to build
a comprehensive platform from VR hardware, Microsoft5has
also begun to focus on the AR field, relying on their products
Hololens6to improve the commercial capability of AR. Apple7
has also started to layout in various scenes of AR and VR
based on various hardware and software. These illustrate that
AR and VR interactive technologies have some applications
in the preliminary concept of the Metaverse [21].
3) Cloud service and Internet of Things (IoT): Cloud
service is a process of decomposing huge data processing
programs into small programs through the network cloud, and
then processing them through a system composed of multiple
servers [41]. And the Metaverse will inevitably bring very
large data throughput [7], which is a big challenge in terms
of computing speed [42]. Hence, cloud service technology
can bring users a better experience in the Metaverse: service-
oriented low latency, more efficient cooperation, and products
built on the cloud that are easily accessible to users from all
over the world. The Internet of Things (IoT) aims to make
all physical objects that can be addressed independently, i.e.,
the Internet of Everything, based on the Internet’s information
carrier and telecommunication network. In the era of the
Metaverse, massive sensors embedded in all kinds of devices
collect information all the time, accompanied by massive
information generation [43]. Cloud computing provides the
IoT with internet infrastructure and powerful working abilities.
The combination with cloud computing is the inevitable trend
of the development of the IoT, and this will be the great driving
force of the Metaverse.
4) Artificial intelligence (AI): AI is one of the key tech-
nologies to construct the Metaverse [12]. The Metaverse itself
exists in a virtual form, and AI technology can give it realistic
conditions for its actual existence [44]. To be specific, AI
technology can process a large amount of data generated by
users’ activities in the Metaverse, which is mainly manifested
as: generating AI models and creating virtual environments;
mapping body movements to make virtual and real interaction
more natural; synchronous translation of voice; and enhancing
user interaction and participation [45]. Furthermore, Metaverse
will appear as a digital extension of the underlying technology
4https://www.facebook.com/
5https://www.microsoft.com/
6https://www.microsoft.com/hololens
7https://www.apple.com/
in the process of practical application of the new need to
solve the problems and requirements, which makes the AI
technology match with its actual application demand, leading
to an update of the progress of the AI technology innovation
and causing it to develop new application fields [46].
5) Digital twins: It is a concept that refers to the construc-
tion of a digital model of a physical object before it has been
built [47]. Users can simulate in virtual space and transmit
the actual parameters to the real world. The impact of digital
twins on the Metaverse can be summarized in the following
four aspects: Reality becomes computable, interpersonal com-
munication becomes more flexible, organizations become more
flexible, and processes become more optimized [48].
III. METAVER SE SECURITY AND PR IVACY TECHNOLOGY
The Metaverse will profoundly affect the various needs of
human beings. Thus, the security and privacy issues of the
Metaverse cannot be ignored. As Henry Bagdasarian, Founder
of Identity Management Institute8, once said, “Metaverse will
completely change the way people live, socialize, and con-
duct business, thus presenting new security challenges in the
evolving digital world. As the new digital space takes shape
to fully transition our physical world into the digital realm,
experts in the field will be concerned with emerging Metaverse
security risks, which will include new forms of security and
data protection threats, identity theft, and fraud. Actually,
security and privacy in the virtual world of Metaverse mainly
occur in four layers. According to the current technological
composition of the Metaverse, the security risks and threats of
the Metaverse mainly include eight points, which are shown in
Fig.2. The following sections discuss the Metaverse security
and privacy from the standpoint of the ve main related
technologies.
Application layer
Computing layer
Network layer
Interaction layer
Blockchain
and Smart
Contract
Decentralized
Identity and
dApps NFT and
Crypto
AI and Data
Management
Ethics, Privacy,
and
Compliance
IoT, Wearables,
AR/VR
Phishing and
Social
Engineering
Identity Theft
and
Cybercrime
Fig. 2. Four layers and eight major threats in virtual world of Metaverse.
8https://identitymanagementinstitute.org/
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2954
A. Blockchain Security
The leading Internet companies, such as Facebook and
Google, hold a large amount of user data. Facebook has lost
nearly $50 billion in market cap since the data scandal9.
Google prioritizes blockchain research on cloud storage ser-
vices, while Facebook prioritizes secure payment. Blockchain
adopts point-to-point transmission, consensus mechanism, and
encryption algorithm technology to provide users with safe
and reliable data storage and data transmission [49]. Hackers
can still attack and destroy the system due to its insufficient
design, such as the consensus mechanism, smart contract, or
cryptographic algorithm.
1) Consensus mechanism: The blockchain is a decentral-
ized ledger, and the consensus mechanism helps to achieve
consistency and correctness of data on different nodes. The
popular consensus mechanism algorithms include PBFT, PoW,
PoS, and DPoS [49]. However, there are security risks in these
algorithms. For the PoW, it may suffer from the double spend
attack10 that the attacker can control the entire blockchain
if the attacker’s computing power exceeds 51% of the entire
blockchain.
2) Smart contract: Smart contracts are used to help users
control their own assets and receive assets from the outside
[50]. The contract is open and transparent, which helps to
improve transparency and prevent fraud. However, not ev-
eryone wants the confidential contract information disclosed.
In addition, on the blockchain, developers can’t modify the
bugs in the protocol because it becomes immutable when
deployed into the blockchain. Wormhole, which connects the
two blockchains of Ethereum and Solana, was attacked by
hackers, and its loss is estimated to be at least 320 million
dollars11.
3) Cryptographic algorithm: Encryption ensures that the
blockchain can’t be tampered with. To generate digital sig-
natures for secure transactions, blockchain primarily employs
elliptic curve encryption algorithms (such as ECDSA, RSA,
and DSA) [51]. With the development of quantum computing,
these algorithms can not guarantee security, so more and more
researchers are beginning to pay attention to how to resist
quantum attacks [52].
B. Interactive Technology Security
AR and VR with interactive technology are important parts
of the Metaverse vision [25]. However, it also has some
security issues. There are two main challenges in interactive
technology. One is that the amount of information in interac-
tive technology is larger, so it is more likely to be stolen by
criminals, and the other is that identity authentication is more
difficult and insecure in the virtual world.
9https://www.vox.com/2018/3/20/17144130/facebook-stock-wall-street-
billion-market-cap
10https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublespending
11https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/02/320millionstolenfromwormhole-
bridgelinkingsolanaandethereum.html
1) Information security: In recent years, face recognition
technology has been widely used in identity authentication.
However, there are still loopholes in facial recognition tech-
nology. For example, hackers can download photos from social
accounts and utilize these photos to create VR models of
people’s faces, thereby defeating the security systems of fa-
cial recognition technology. As AR/VR interactive technology
is widely used in the Metaverse, more personal data will
inevitably be generated, and there will also be more data
interfaces. AR collects a lot of information about who users
are and what users are doing, which is deeper than social
media networks or other forms of technology. It has raised
concerns and questions from users. If a hacker gains access to
the device, the potential loss of privacy is beyond estimation.
As with AR, information security is a major concern for
VR as well. A key concern in information security for VR
is the highly personal nature of the data collected, such as
biometric data like iris or retina scans, fingerprints, handprints,
face geometry, and so on. For example, VR is able to do finger
tracking and eye tracking. For example, when users use their
fingers to type codes on the virtual keyboard, the VR system
records and sends the finger and track data showing the fingers
typing the password [53]. If an attacker could capture that data,
they would be able to recreate the users’ passwords. Some
VR headsets may also feature eye tracking capabilities [54].
The data can provide additional value to malicious actors.
If attackers can know exactly what a user is viewing, they
can capture potentially valuable sources of information and
steal it. Therefore, it is easy to foresee that guaranteeing
personal data from being stolen by hackers will be a quite
difficult task. For example, some sensors mounted on AR and
VR devices can be used to take photos, which may allow
hackers to record the users’ movements in the Metaverse. It
creates a certain potential security threat. For example, Chen
et al. [55] proposed a 3D visual attack on digital passwords,
which indicates that there are certain security risks with
interactive devices. In essence, the security of information in
interactive technologies still depends on the security of the
data. Since 1975, data security was developed rapidly [56].
Until now, technologies related to data security have been
widely developed, such as data security in cryptography [56],
[57], image and video data encryption method [58], [59], data
security in cloud computing [60], [61], and data security in
cyberspace [62], [63].
2) Authorization: Nowadays, the authorization of AR and
VR devices is usually ignored or performed on a smartphone
or PC [64]. However, authenticating in a virtual space by lever-
aging traditional authentication techniques is not convenient.
For example, if users need to perform identity authentication
in an immersive meeting, they should take off the interactive
product, which will greatly reduce their immersive experience.
Many technologies that can be used for identity authentication
have been developed, but there are still some security risks as-
sociated with identity fraud. For example, traditional methods
like entering passwords are cumbersome and less suitable for
virtual worlds. In addition, although the use of voice recog-
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2955
nition technology can effectively authenticate an identity, it
still has security risks with the development of voice synthesis
technology. Therefore, biometric authentication using sensors
is widely used. Among them, gait recognition methods [65]
designed for continuous authentication, thus improving safety.
Besides, Duezguen et al. [66] proposed a shoulder-surfing re-
sistant authentication scheme that relies only on the equipment
of the AR/VR head-mounted display, which improves security
and authentication efficiency. Other study [67] suggested that
authentication is no longer just the step of confirming identity;
instead, multidimensional authentication is more applicable.
These discoveries provide a certain technical basis for identity
authentication, which ensures the security of the Metaverse.
In addition, users need to be vigilant when using AR and VR
devices, including:
Be careful to avoid disclosing private information that is
too personal.
Use a VPN to adopt advanced encryption and change IP
addresses to keep your identity and data private.
Keep firmware updated to fix security flaws in a timely
manner and use comprehensive and trustworthy antivirus
software.
Pay attention to reviewing privacy policies.
C. Cloud service and Internet of Things (IoT) security
Cloud services and IoT both have the ability to process
large-scale data. However, due to their decentralized deploy-
ment, it is easy to have management problems, which could
be attacked. Therefore, the security of infrastructure and data
should be addressed.
1) Infrastructure: Enterprises usually use remote moni-
toring mode to monitor the power consumption of servers
[68]. The security level of these systems is usually low. If
the cooling system was disrupted, then the servers may be
experiencing downtime due to their excessive temperature12.
Therefore, enterprises should improve the security level of
their remote control management system and upgrade the
hardware in due time. In addition, the infrastructure is prone
to suffering large traffic attacks, such as DDoS13. It can build
a reliable risk assessment platform to distinguish attack traffic
from normal traffic. If it discovers the attack traffic, it could
use Anycast [69] to distribute attack traffic to the distributed
server network.
2) Data: Users can store their own data in the cloud and
share it with others. Users with permission can access this
data anytime and anywhere. In order to protect the data,
protective measures should be deployed across all links, such
as data storage and transmission. In data storage, the data
should be encrypted so that even if hackers obtain the data,
they cannot understand the contents [70]. Moreover, when
using zero-knowledge encryption [71], [72], it can store users’
encryption keys outside the cloud. Therefore, they cannot
read the data even if the hackers get permission from the
12https://blog.cyble.com/2022/01/27/datacentersfacingriskofcyberattacks/
13https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denialofservice attack
data server because they have no encryption key. After data
encryption, the previous data retrieval technologies have failed.
It can improve retrieval efficiency by using the encrypted
information retrieval technology [73], such as linear search
algorithm, security index, and keyword public key search.
To ensure confidentiality and data integrity, data transmission
must be encrypted using relevant security protocols such as
PGP, SSL/TLS, IPSec, and others14 .
D. Artificial Intelligence Security
Nowadays, many AI algorithms can successfully complete
the tasks of classification and recognition. However, because
most algorithms have the black box characteristics, it becomes
difficult to detect attacks.
1) Generative adversarial network (GAN): GAN15 is one
of the most popular attacks that generates deceptive data
through the iterative fusion of two neural networks [74]. It
can help solve this problem by strengthening the detection of
malicious data. Ioannidis et al. [75] presented a way to recover
the original data by detecting and eliminating malicious nodes
and edges. Another method adds disturbance samples into the
training step to improve the generalization ability of the model.
Dai et al. [76] presented an adversarial training method, adding
the disturbance to the embedded space.
2) Embedded malware: When hackers use the hiding tech-
nology EvilModel to embed fraud data into the training
process, this is referred to as embedded malware [77]. If the
developers can’t well understand the algorithms’ principles,
they will not discover the virus from the slight difference in
the experimental results. At present, if the infected layer is
not frozen, the virus can be directly destroyed by changing
the parameter values and retraining the model. However, most
developers may not change the pre-training parameters unless
they want to make other applications. Therefore, it needs
new ways to deal with these security threats. Recently, many
studies [78]–[80] have focused on constructing a complete
framework that can help developers find weaknesses in the
machine learning pipeline and repair security vulnerabilities.
Furthermore, an increasing number of studies are attempting
to improve the interpretability of their modules [81].
E. Digital Twins Security
As stated above, security issues are widespread in the
Metaverse. However, at the same time, the development of the
Metaverse can also affect the security of systems in the real
world. In fact, the Metaverse also represents a hypothetical
parallel virtual world that can serve as a virtual form of
the real world. The Metaverse can also generate some safe
simulations of the real world, inspired by the digital twins
[82], which was originally proposed by NASA16 in 1970. It is
a digital technology that establishes a physical system within
an information platform to simulate a physical entity, process,
14https://msatechnosoft.in/blog/internet-security-ipsecurity-ssl-tls-pgp-
firewall/
15https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative adversarial network
16https://www.nasa.gov/
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2956
or system [83]. Actually, the Metaverse is closely related to
digital twins conceptually in that the Metaverse is actually a
digital twin of the entire real world [84], but the Metaverse
emphasizes the combination of virtual and real more. There-
fore, the security of the digital twins is also an important topic
that contributes to the security of the Metaverse. Current work
has explored the security support of digital twins technology
for cyber-physical systems (CPS) [85], which can provide
some reference for the security of the Metaverse. According
to the life cycle of CPS, the security assurance of digital
twins can be mainly divided into several stages [86], which are
respectively secure design of cyber-physical systems, intrusion
detection, detecting hardware and software misconfigurations,
security testing, privacy, system testing and training, secure
decommissioning, and legal compliance. The technology of
digital twins can be applied to the Metaverse to strengthen the
close connection between the virtual and real worlds.
1) Since digital twins exist only virtually and often run in
an environment isolated from real-time systems, they can also
be used as testing and training platforms. Producers can test
defenses before putting their products into use, or train them
on how to deal with regular cyberattacks, which is helpful for
risk assessments. Analyzing how the system to be engineered
behaves under attack would allow engineers to estimate poten-
tial damage and dangers. Bcue et al. [87] proposed the method
of using digital twins in combination with a cyber range. In
addition, another viable technical use case is to assess how
to limit damage to the system, such as by simulating attack
scenarios to prepare a containment strategy for compromised
devices. Eckhart et al. [88] demonstrate how the concept of
digital twins can be leveraged to construct intrusion detection
systems. An intrusion can be detected simply by comparing
the inputs and outputs of the physical device with the digital
twins. In the Metaverse, real-world threats can be simulated.
The Metaverse can simulate and anticipate real-world threats
through modeling to create strategies and detect intrusions by
comparing input and output to deal with potential risks.
2) The hardware and software of the device are simulated in
the digital twins, and these virtual representations can simulate
the device’s functions to a certain extent. By applying the
same method to the configuration data, engineers can check
whether the software is correctly configured [89]. In the future,
with the gradual maturity of virtual reality and digitalization,
there will be more security problems in all kinds of software
and hardware. To utilize this detection of digital twins, a
wide variety of hardware and software can be detected in the
Metaverse in a similar way.
3) Building a security test platform can avoid interference
with the real-time system on the premise of supporting security
detection. However, building and maintaining this platform
takes a lot of time and money. At this time, designers can
use digital twins technology to solve this problem. The digital
twins can provide a continuous monitoring record of safety
aspects for the entire life cycle of the CPS [90]. In the
Metaverse era, it is bound to be more vital to conduct real-
time system monitoring and detection to prevent the real-time
invasion of hackers.
4) In the work proposed by Damjanovic et al. [91], auto-
matic privacy assessment based on virtual replicas of smart
cars is studied. The digital twins then anonymize the data
before transmitting it to the insurance company, protecting
the privacy of the customer. In this way, the technologies
of digital twins further strengthens the protection of personal
information security, and they can be used for reference in the
Metaverse.
5) The digital twins provide a platform that can virtualize
the process of processing, virtualize the cost of media sanitiza-
tion, data confidentiality, and clean-up processes, and suggest
appropriate solutions for secure decommissioning of CPSs
[92]. There are more large-scale systems in the Metaverse era,
and a large Metaverse can be built to safely retire the systems.
Hence, it has to dispose of the components by referring to the
related technologies of digital twins.
In general, since the digital twins technology and many parts
of the Metaverse have similar concepts, the security technol-
ogy in the digital twins can provide a powerful reference for
the future security issue of the Metaverse.
IV. OPE N PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES
A. Open Problems
Although existing technology has brought many solutions to
the problem of security and privacy in the Metaverse. However,
it is undeniable that there are still some open problems that
remain unresolved.
1) NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) [93]: The Metaverse will
rely on NFTs. In other words, NFTs are the foundation of
the Metaverse. There are integrity issues. When users use
NFTs for transactions, it can be understood that the transaction
data is used as an asset receipt. However, the assets of these
receipts exist on the server, and the owner of the server that
stores the NFTs is the actual controller of the transaction
data. From another point of view, once these centralized
exchanges determine that the NFTs released by the project
have violated regulations for various reasons, causing the work
to be removed from the exchange, the NFT consumers’ own
will become worthless, like the example of the Not Okay
Bears17 being taken down by Opensea18.
2) Darkverse: The darkverse in Metaverse is like the dark
web in the web. In some ways, it is potentially more dangerous
than the dark web because of the pseudo-physical presence
of the users. The darkverse has no index. Hence, it is more
difficult to control.
3) Privacy issues: There are still some uncontrollable
threats to personal privacy issues. A Metaverse publisher will
control all aspects of its Metaverse and collect a large amount
of user data. Due to the decentralized nature of the Metaverse,
the Metaverse publisher can monetize and sell this collected
data, an act that is also difficult to control.
17https://notokay.art/
18https://nftevening.com/not-okay-bears-nft-collection-delisted-from-
opensea/
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2957
4) Social engineering: Social engineering is able to use
psychological manipulation to trick users into creating security
breaches or giving away sensitive information. In the Meta-
verse, criminal disguises will be easier and more difficult to
detect. Criminals can infiltrate the Metaverse to impersonate
companies, providers, family members, friends, etc. Further-
more, law enforcement agencies may struggle to intercept
crimes and criminals in the Metaverse.
5) Miscellaneous threats and issues: There are some other
security threats to the Metaverse but in various parts, they do
not quite fit the categories of the previous issues. These threats
and issues include:
The Metaverse has an impact on the environment. For
instance, bitcoin mining plays an important role in the
Metaverse, which undoubtedly consumes a lot of elec-
tricity.
The Metaverse has become more heavily reliant on net-
works. Hence, network malfunctions due to up-link or
power failures need to be handled securely.
Large companies often have high control over computing
power, algorithms, and so on. Therefore, the Metaverse
can hardly be disassociated from large technology com-
panies. In other words, it is difficult to achieve absolute
decentralization.
When decentralization in the Metaverse is fully realized,
free from the influence and constraints of the political
system and state, it may lead to terrorism running rampant
in the Metaverse.
In the Metaverse, there will be more infringements due
to anonymity. Policies and enforcement of copyright need
to be refined and supplemented.
More technologies related to artificial intelligence,
robotics, etc. will appear, but there is still a lack of ethics,
accountability, and laws governing interactions with bots
or artificial intelligence.
The speech and activities within the Metaverse may be
flooded (fake news, hate, extremism, racism, bullying,
harassment, and so on).
B. Future Directions
For a variety of reasons, security and privacy remain the
most pressing concerns about the Metaverse today. With the
coming of a new age of digital information exploration, it will
become a critical area to structure the virtual world with the
tools to solve the issues of security and privacy. Therefore,
we still have a lot of work to construct a blueprint and further
solve how the virtual world integrates with the real world.
1) Vigorously developing science and technology: We have
mentioned in Section III that many existing technologies have
supported the security of the Metaverse. With the emergence
of unknown areas, there will inevitably be higher technical
requirements. For example, developing computing power, de-
veloping new algorithms to improve computing speed, opening
up new storage technologies, and realizing further innovation
on the basis of existing interactive technologies. Enterprises
and companies need to be good at healthy competition and
cross-border cooperation to ensure that the speed of scientific
and technological upgrading can maintain the development of
the Metaverse.
2) Improve laws and regulations: Since the network was
born, it has developed so fast that many applications are
widely used in a variety of fields. However, it didn’t take
long for security concerns to arise, like robots, inappropriate
speech, national questions, and so on. Actually, due to the
Metaverse, many issues have to be rethought again. Many
things conceived twenty years ago must be reconsidered and
updated before the Metaverse can be fully constructed. The
order of the Metaverse will undoubtedly be more difficult to
manipulate and govern due to anonymity and decentralization.
The future regulation of law in the Metaverse will be a
significant challenge. For example, the legislature must define
rights, create accountability, protect responsibilities for data,
and reinforce the standard of authentication in the Metaverse.
In the future, laws and regulations will need to be improved
to maintain the order of the Metaverse and provide a funda-
mentally secure virtual world.
3) Find a balance between regulatory and user experience:
For the guarantee of the security and privacy of the Metaverse,
government departments may impose excessive intervention
and regulation. Although security and privacy issues should
not be ignored, excessive supervision may lead to a decline in
users’ experiences. Hence, the relationship between regulatory
and user experiences should be well-balanced. We should
commit to a ”responsible Metaverse” as much as possible,
not only to manage a series of risks and complexities but also
to ensure we maintain the trust of users in the Metaverse.
V. CONCLUSIONS
As an emerging topic in the 2020s, the Metaverse provides
a lot of possibilities for the future direction of the new
generation of the Internet. However, the issue of security and
privacy is enduring and cannot be ignored in the Metaverse.
In this survey, we comprehensively review the advantages
of the Metaverse, the changes it brings to mankind, the
application scenarios, and related technologies that help the
Metaverse develop. Furthermore, we expound on the security
and privacy guarantees brought about by the Metaverse’s
development through five technologies. In addition, some
vital open problems and opportunities are discussed in detail.
Finally, we conclude this paper. We hope this survey can make
the Metaverse more attractive to both industry and academia.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research was supported in part by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (Nos. 62002136 and 62272196),
Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No.
2022A1515011861), Guangzhou Basic and Applied Basic
Research Foundation (No. 202102020277), Fundamental Re-
search Funds for the Central Universities of Jinan University
(No. 21622416), and the Young Scholar Program of Pazhou
Lab (No. PZL2021KF0023). Dr. Wensheng Gan is the corre-
sponding author of this paper.
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2958
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... The Metaverse's reliance on real-time interaction and continuous data flow makes it more vulnerable to exploitation, particularly in environments where AI-driven algorithms process vast amounts of biometric data to optimize user experiences. This has raised concerns that the Metaverse could become an environment where users are subject to highly targeted manipulation, with few safeguards in place to ensure ethical data use [161]. New trends in the Metaverse, including decentralized governance and open standards, are promising but still insufficient to mitigate the risks posed by large-scale data collection and surveillance. ...
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