A Comprehensive Survey of Security and Privacy in UAV Systems

The proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) across diverse applications, from photography to critical infrastructure inspection, has raised significant security and privacy challenges. This comprehensive survey presents a systematic analysis of UAV security vulnerabilities, privacy concerns, and practical solutions, including concerns regarding implementation feasibility and regulatory compliance. We begin with a detailed UAV system model encompassing hardware, software, and communication protocols, followed by a novel categorization of security vulnerabilities that clearly distinguishes between hardware attack, software attack, and communication technology attack surfaces. Our analysis of privacy issues extends beyond traditional concerns, including ethical considerations in UAV surveillance and compliance with global privacy frameworks such as GDPR. We present state-of-the-art technical solutions, including lightweight encryption protocols, privacy-preserving machine learning, and blockchain-based security mechanisms, with specific implementation metrics and resource utilization guidelines. The paper also examines policy-based approaches and regulatory frameworks across different jurisdictions, providing a balanced perspective on both technical and governance aspects. Our work concludes with an analysis of emerging technologies and future research directions, emphasizing the need for integrated solutions that balance security requirements with operational constraints. This survey serves as a comprehensive reference for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers working to enhance UAV security and privacy while ensuring practical deployability.