Security and Privacy in O-RAN for 6G: A Comprehensive Review of Threats and Mitigation Approaches

Computer Science > Cryptography and Security [Submitted on 22 Mar 2026] Security and Privacy in O-RAN for 6G: A Comprehensive Review of Threats and Mitigation Approaches Lujia Liang, Lei Zhang Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) is a major advancement in the telecommunications field, providing standardized interfaces that promote interoperability between different vendors' technologies, thereby enhancing network flexibility and reducing operational expenses. By leveraging cutting-edge developments in network virtualization and artificial intelligence, O-RAN enhances operational efficiency and stimulates innovation within an open ecosystem. In the context of 6G, the potential capabilities of O-RAN have been significantly expanded, enabling ultra-reliable low-latency communication, terabit-level data rates, and seamless integration of terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks. Despite these benefits, its open architecture paradigm also brings critical security and privacy challenges, which, if not addressed, could compromise network integrity and data confidentiality. This paper conducts a comprehensive investigation into the security vulnerabilities and privacy issues associated with the O-RAN architecture in the context of the evolving 6G landscape, systematically categorizing fundamental vulnerabilities, meticulously examining potential attack vectors, and assessing current and future threats. In addition, this study also examines the existing and emerging security mechanisms of O-RAN and reviews the ongoing standardization activities aimed at strengthening the O-RAN security framework. Comments: Published in IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials Subjects: Cryptography and Security (cs.CR); Networking and Internet Architecture (cs.NI) Cite as: arXiv:2603.21211 [cs.CR]   (or arXiv:2603.21211v1 [cs.CR] for this version)   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2603.21211 Focus to learn more Journal reference: IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, vol. 28, pp. 5159-5195, 2026 Related DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/COMST.2026.3669743 Focus to learn more Submission history From: Lujia Liang [view email] [v1] Sun, 22 Mar 2026 13:11:10 UTC (940 KB) Access Paper: HTML (experimental) view license Current browse context: cs.CR < prev   |   next > new | recent | 2026-03 Change to browse by: cs cs.NI References & Citations NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar Export BibTeX Citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Demos Related Papers About arXivLabs Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)