Navigating the Dual-Use Nature and Security Implications of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces in Next-Generation Wireless Systems

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) technology offers significant promise in enhancing wireless communication systems, but its dual-use potential also introduces substantial security risks. This survey explores the security implications of RIS in next-generation wireless networks. We first highlight the dual-use nature of RIS, demonstrating how its communication-enhancing capabilities can be exploited by adversaries to compromise legitimate users. We identify a new class of security vulnerabilities termed “passive-active hybrid attacks,” where RIS, despite passively handling signals, can be reconfigured to actively engage in malicious activities, enabling various RIS-assisted attacks, such as eavesdropping, man-in-the-middle (MITM), replay, reflection jamming, and side-channel attacks. Furthermore, we reveal how adversaries can exploit the openness of wireless channels to introduce adversarial perturbations in artificial intelligence-driven RIS networks, disrupting communication terminals and causing misclassifications or errors in RIS reflection predictions. Despite these risks, RIS technology also plays a critical role in enhancing security and privacy across radio frequency (RF) and visible light communication (VLC) systems. By synthesizing current insights and highlighting emerging threats, we provide actionable insights into cross-layer collaboration, advanced adversarial defenses, and the balance between security and cost. This survey provides a comprehensive overview of RIS technology’s security landscape and underscores the urgent need for robust security frameworks in the development of future wireless systems.