Slice Hopping

In telecommunications, Slice Hopping is an attack in which an adversary pivots from one 5G network slice to another that should be logically isolated, for example moving from a public consumer slice into an enterprise or critical-infrastructure slice. Strong slice isolation requires per-slice NF instances or strict policy enforcement at NRF, SCP, AMF, and UPF.

Categories: Radio Access NetworkCore NetworkThreats and Attacks

Slice Hopping in context

The radio access network is where mobile devices attach to the operator's infrastructure. Attacks in this layer include IMSI catching, rogue base stations and downgrade attacks; defenses rest on mutual authentication, integrity-protected signaling and Open RAN supply-chain hygiene.

The mobile core carries subscriber sessions, mobility and policy. In 4G it is the EPC (MME, HSS, S/PGW); in 5G it is the Service-Based Architecture with AMF, SMF, UPF, AUSF, UDM and the NRF.

To place Slice Hopping in the wider telecom-security picture, review AMPS, Backhaul, BTS, Jamming, Open RAN and RAN — each entry cross-references back to this page so you can walk the topic in either direction.

Related terms

More from the TelcoSec Glossary

Browse the full TelcoSec Glossary, the Ultimate Guide to Mobile Network Security, or the P1 Arsenal of telecom-security tools.