An extended review of Reversing the Virtual Maze: An Overview of the Technical and Methodological Challenges for Metaverse App Analysis

Abstract

The Metaverse is an increasingly popular virtual environment. Recent technological advances — such as head-mounted displays and novel sensors — have enabled a more seamless integration of virtual experiences into our daily lives. This integration is reshaping how we interact with both our environment and each other, offering boundless opportunities across entertainment, social engagement, and business. As the technology remains in its early stages and far from market consolidation, a proliferation of new platforms and devices has resulted in a highly heterogeneous ecosystem. Much like the smartphone landscape, leading platforms in the Metaverse allow users to install third-party applications via online marketplaces. However, the Metaverse introduces the additional ambition of enabling seamless interaction across multiple virtual environments. Consequently, developers face mounting pressure to support a wide range of platforms and often depend on cross-platform development frameworks — adding yet another layer of complexity to the application stack.

This complexity, combined with the presence of disruptive new sensors in XR headsets, introduces novel risks to user security and privacy. Although progress has been made in identifying potential threats within this ecosystem, there remains a substantial gap in methodologies and tools for analyzing actionable risks on popular headsets. In this work, we present a vision for application analysis grounded in practical experience. We consider the various components of the XR ecosystem that influence security assessments and highlight key challenges that must be addressed to effectively mitigate emerging threats.