Hierarchical Security Survey of Voice Control Systems: Vulnerabilities, Countermeasures, and Future Horizons

The widespread adoption of Voice Control Systems (VCSs) in smart devices and their growing integration into daily life highlight the urgent need to address their security challenges. Recent studies have uncovered a range of vulnerabilities in VCS, which threaten user privacy and safety. Despite these findings, there remains a notable absence of a comprehensive and systematic review that thoroughly examines these vulnerabilities and the corresponding defense strategies. This gap hinders VCS designers from fully understanding and addressing the security risks inherent in these systems. To bridge this gap, our research introduces a hierarchical model for VCS, providing a structured and innovative framework for organizing and analyzing existing literature. We categorize attacks based on their underlying technical principles and conduct an in-depth analysis of various aspects, including attack methodologies, targets, vectors, and behaviors. Furthermore, we synthesize and critically evaluate current defense mechanisms, offering practical recommendations to strengthen VCS security. Analyzing VCS security from a hierarchical perspective, this work equips designers with the tools to effectively identify and mitigate potential threats while establishing a foundation for future research and advancements in VCS security.