Page 286 - Kaleidoscope Academic Conference Proceedings 2024

2024 ITU Kaleidoscope Academic Conference

ISO International Organization for Standardization 3. NETWORK VIRTUALIZATION SECURITY
IT Information technology THREATS
ITU International Telecommunication Union
MANO Management and orchestration With the rapid development and widespread application of
NFV Network function virtualization network virtualization technology, its security issues are
increasingly receiving attention. Network virtualization
NSaaS Network Security as a Service brings advantages in resource flexibility and business
NVS Network virtualization services agility. At the same time, it also brings a series of security
OMC Operation maintenance centre threats, including virus attacks, malware implantation,
PoP Point of presence information leakage, etc. [11-12], as shown in Figure 1.
PKI Public key infrastructure
SDN Software-defined networking
SD-WAN Software-defined wide-area network
SFC Service function chain
VM Virtual machine
VMM Virtual machine manager
VNF Virtual network function
VNFM Virtual network function manager
vCPU Virtual CPU
vI/O Virtual I/O
vMemory Virtual memory
vRouter Virtual router Figure 1- Network virtualization security threats
vSwitch Virtual switch
• Virus attacks and malware implantation. In network
2. RELATED WORK virtualization, the host operating system and client
operating system of virtual network functions, SDN
In recent years, network virtualization technology and its controller software, MANO operating system, etc.
security issues have received much attention. ETSI might be attacked by viruses and malware.
specifically released a series of standards on network
virtualization [1-5]. In addition, ITU has also closely • Information leakage. After deleting the VM, if special
explored related topics such as software defined network "purification" processing is not performed on the data,
frameworks [6]. Scholars have also conducted numerous other business systems or malicious operation and
studies on the security issues of network virtualization. In maintenance personnel may obtain the original
[7], a comprehensive investigation and sorting of the business key information, thereby triggering sensitive
current situation of network virtualization security was data leakage.
conducted. In [8], a detailed analysis was conducted on
network function virtualization in multi-tenant cloud • Unauthorized usage and access. Unauthorized
environments. [9] focus on the optimization of NFV chain attackers may use and access data from MANO's VM
deployment in software defined cellular cores. [10] or API, as well as leveraging defects such as
summarizes the challenges and opportunities faced by incomplete isolation of VM resources and difficulties
network virtualization and provides effective guidance for in monitoring traffic between VMs, which may lead to
the security development of network virtualization. unauthorized access to VMs.

The above related work analyzes the security risks of NFV,
the security requirements of the host system and the • DoS and DDoS attacks. Attackers might use many
security requirements of SDN, which can be used as a switches to forward a large number of packets to the
reference for virtual network security but does not involve SDN controller, causing the SDN controller to be
the virtual network security framework and systematic subjected to (D) DoS attacks.
security technical requirements.
• Insider attacks. Malicious administrators might tamper
This article will systematically analyze and propose with images or change security configurations
measures to solve the security threats of virtual network intentionally, or make security misconfigurations
infrastructure, virtual network function, and control and (such as opening unnecessary ports on VNF) and
management in virtual networks, and introduced some launch attacks.
network virtualization security use cases, which aims to
provide reference for stakeholders to protect network • Forgery of transaction contents. The transaction
virtualization security. content of VM can be tampered with by attackers, who
can also forge network elements or other systems in

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