{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,14]],"date-time":"2026-02-14T06:10:11Z","timestamp":1771049411885,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":27,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,12]],"date-time":"2026-02-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1770854400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"This work is supported by The Applied Digital Transformation Laboratory (ADiT-LAB), through the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology","award":["UIDP\/06121\/2025 and DOI identifier https:\/\/doi.org\/10.54499\/UID\/06121\/2025"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["UIDP\/06121\/2025 and DOI identifier https:\/\/doi.org\/10.54499\/UID\/06121\/2025"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JCP"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Network slicing is a core enabler of multi-tenant 5th Generation (5G) architectures, allowing heterogeneous services to coexist over shared infrastructure. However, ensuring effective isolation between slices remains a critical security challenge, as failures may enable cross-slice interference, data leakage, or cascading service disruption. This article analyses security vulnerabilities affecting 5G network slicing from a risk-oriented perspective, with particular emphasis on isolation weaknesses across orchestration, virtualization, network, and interface layers. Due to the technical immaturity and instability of current open-source slicing platforms, experimental validation of security mechanisms proved infeasible. These limitations are therefore treated as empirical evidence informing a structured vulnerability taxonomy and a qualitative risk assessment grounded in confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Building on this analysis, the article proposes a conceptual security framework that integrates defence-in-depth, zero-trust principles, continuous monitoring, and adaptive response mechanisms to enforce isolation dynamically. Aligned with established standards and regulatory references, the framework provides a coherent theoretical foundation for future experimental validation and the secure design of resilient 5G network slicing architectures.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jcp6010035","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,12]],"date-time":"2026-02-12T14:06:16Z","timestamp":1770905176000},"page":"35","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Security Challenges in 5G Network Slicing: A Risk-Based Analysis and Conceptual Framework"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"6","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0009-0015-1283","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jos\u00e9","family":"Dias","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"ESTG, Instituto Polit\u00e9cnico de Viana do Castelo, 4900-347 Viana do Castelo, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5274-3733","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Silvestre","family":"Malta","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"ESTG, Instituto Polit\u00e9cnico de Viana do Castelo, 4900-347 Viana do Castelo, Portugal"},{"name":"ADiT-Lab, Instituto Polit\u00e9cnico de Viana do Castelo, 4900-347 Viana do Castelo, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2139-5414","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ricardo","family":"Santos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"ESTG, Instituto Polit\u00e9cnico do Porto, 4610 Felgueiras, Portugal"},{"name":"CIICESI, Instituto Polit\u00e9cnico do Porto, 4610 Felgueiras, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tan, H., Wang, M., Shen, J., Vijayakumar, P., Moh, S., and Wu, Q.M.J. 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