Systematic Literature Review Journal
Vol. 2 No. 3 (2026): July : Systematic Literature Review Journal

Threats and Mitigations of Cybersecurity in Augmented, Virtual, and Extended Reality: A Systematic Literature Review

Hendro Wijayanto (Universitas Tiga Serangkai)
Paulus Harsadi (Universitas Tiga Serangkai)
Bayu Dwi Raharja (Universitas Tiga Serangkai)
Dwi Remawati (Universitas Tiga Serangkai)



Article Info

Publish Date
31 Jul 2026

Abstract

The rapid adoption of augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and extended reality (XR) technologies has introduced a distinct cybersecurity attack surface shaped by continuous biometric and spatial data collection, immersive interfaces, and multi-user collaborative environments. While individual studies have examined specific threats such as privacy leakage, side-channel attacks, and social engineering within immersive systems, a consolidated mapping of threats and their corresponding mitigation strategies across the AR/VR/XR domain remains limited. This study presents a systematic literature review guided by the PRISMA 2020 reporting framework to synthesize indexed research on cybersecurity threats and mitigations in AR/VR/XR published between 2018 and 2026. A structured search strategy combining terms related to immersive technologies and cybersecurity was applied across major computer-science literature sources, followed by criteria-based screening, yielding 45 studies included in the final synthesis. The review organizes threats into six categories: privacy and data leakage, side-channel and input-inference attacks, authentication and access-control weaknesses, perceptual manipulation and social engineering, malware and session hijacking, and physical safety risks. Correspondingly, five categories of mitigation strategies are identified: privacy-preserving techniques, detection and defense frameworks, authentication mechanisms, policy and risk-assessment frameworks, and interface- or awareness-based defenses. The synthesis reveals that mitigation research lags behind threat identification, particularly for perceptual manipulation and multi-user collaborative attacks. These findings offer a structured reference for researchers and developers seeking to design more secure immersive systems and highlight priority directions for future empirical research.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

slrj

Publisher

Subject

Computer Science & IT Health Professions Nursing Public Health Social Sciences Other

Description

Systematic Literature Review Journal (SLRJ) is an academic journal published by IFREL, focusing on the publication of research findings derived from Systematic Literature Reviews (SLR). This journal provides a platform to showcase research that incorporates SLR methodologies across various ...