MALRIS: Malicious Hardware in RIS-Assisted Wireless Communications

Abstract: Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) enhance wireless communication by dynamically shaping the propagation environment, but their integration introduces hardware-level security risks. This paper presents the concept of Malicious RIS (MALRIS), where compromised components behave adversarially, even under passive operation. The focus of this work is on practical threats such as manufacturing time tampering, malicious firmware, and partial element control. Two representative attacks, power-splitting and element-splitting, are modeled to assess their impact. Simulations in a RIS-assisted system reveal that even a limited hardware compromise can significantly degrade performance metrics such as bit error rate, throughput, and secrecy metrics. By exposing this overlooked threat surface, this work aims to promote awareness and support secure, trustworthy RIS deployment in future wireless networks.