A Security Survey of NFV: From Causes to Practices

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is proposed as new technology to address massive proprietary devices, high operation costs, poor flexibility and other problems in current traditional network. By separating network functions and proprietary devices, NFV can significantly reduce operation costs and enable flexible configuration of services, etc. Now NFV is widely used in various fields. However, due to virtualization and softwareization and other technical characteristics, NFV faces more serious security threats compared to traditional networks. This paper focuses on analyzing the NFV security threats under the new technology and summarizes them according to the causes of security threats. Subsequently, based on the results of the analysis, we propose the corresponding safety practice solutions. Finally, we prospect the research directions for improving NFV security.