Immersive Virtual Reality Attacks and the Human Joystick

Abstract

This is one of the first accounts for the security analysis of consumer immersive Virtual Reality (VR) systems. This work breaks new ground, coins new terms, and constructs proof of concept implementations of attacks related to immersive VR. Our work used the two most widely adopted immersive VR systems, the HTC Vive, and the Oculus Rift. More specifically, we were able to create attacks that can potentially disorient users, turn their Head Mounted Display (HMD) camera on without their knowledge, overlay images in their field of vision, and modify VR environmental factors that force them into hitting physical objects and walls. Finally, we illustrate through a human participant deception study the success of being able to exploit VR systems to control immersed users and move them to a location in physical space without their knowledge. We term this the Human Joystick Attack. We conclude our work with future research directions and ways to enhance the security of these systems.

Security Considerations for Virtual Reality Systems

“…For example, malicious software might add additional "objectives" or mechanics to games that induces the user to move in a particular direction. This has been dubbed the Human Joystick effect [10]. A primary use of this technology is to trick a user to enter certain types of biometric authentication.…”

“…Researchers have been able to replicate this effect very consistently on the two most major VR systems, the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift by manipulation of files in the Steam software that they have in common. In doing so, they were able to not only implement overlays, but also set up independent sessions that allowed them to collect data on the user's actions [10]. Researchers have also examined and raised concerns about such technology being utilized in mixed reality (also known as augmented reality) which is an extension of virtual reality that allows the combination of virtual and realworld objects by means of either a partially clear VR screen or a video camera that has its feed combined with the necessary additions before being sent to the standard VR screen [11].…”

Facing Immersive “Post-Truth” in AIVR?

“…This could be conceivably exacerbated within future extensions of technically already feasible "VR deepfakes" [9][10][11] by the particular aptness of VR to facilitate durable memories [12]. While such issues would already play a role regarding unintentional failure modes elicited by ethically aware actors in AIVR, recent research related to the security and safety of AI [13][14][15][16] and VR [17][18][19][20] respectively emphasizes the need to additionally consider the presence of unethical malicious actors. Thereby, to consider intentional malevolent design in AIVR could offer a worst-case scenario analysis [21] that can shed more light on the extent of potential consequences exhibited by the deployment of AIVR technology, but also by simpler cases in AI and VR separately.…”

Attack Trees for Security and Privacy in Social Virtual Reality Learning Environments

“…A recent study [1] on challenges in AR and VR discusses the threat vectors for educational initiatives without characterizing the attack impact. Survey articles [2]- [4], [14]- [16] are significant for understanding the concepts of threat taxonomy and attack surface area of IoT and fog computing. They highlight the need to go beyond specific components such as network, hardware or application, and propose end-to-end solutions that consider system and data vulnerabilities.…”

“…Although existing works [2]- [4] highlight the importance of security and privacy issues in VR applications, there are a limited systematic efforts in evaluating the effect of various threat scenarios on such edge computing based collaborative systems with IoT devices. Specifically, VRLE applications are highly susceptible to Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, due to the distributed IoT devices (i.e.,VR headsets) connecting to virtual classrooms through custom controlled Fig.…”