CBSE acknowledges vulnerabilities in on-screen marking system, issues statement

CBSE acknowledges vulnerabilities in on-screen marking system, issues statement

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has acknowledged vulnerabilities in its On-Screen Marking (OSM) system.

The board said it is closely monitoring these issues after they were flagged publicly.

An expert team of cybersecurity professionals from various government agencies and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) has been deployed to strengthen the system's security infrastructure, CBSE said in a statement on X.

CBSE thanks citizens, ethical hackers

The board has thanked alert citizens and ethical hackers who brought potential security issues to its attention.

CBSE said it has already contacted some of these individuals directly and appreciated their role in helping improve the system's security.

The board also invited others who may have identified vulnerabilities or security concerns to share their findings with its security team via email at secy-cbse@nic.in.

Allegations made by ethical hacker

Recently, a 19-year-old ethical hacker, Nisarga Adhikary, alleged that answer sheets and question papers stored in an AWS bucket were publicly accessible online.

This claim comes amid ongoing scrutiny of CBSE's OSM system and days after Adhikary's disclosures about vulnerabilities in CBSE-linked digital platforms triggered a nationwide debate over the board's technology ecosystem.

No breach of operational examination platform: CBSE

CBSE had earlier clarified that the portal referenced in online discussions was not the live evaluation system used for assessing answer sheets.

The board maintained that no student data, marks, or evaluation records had been compromised and that there had been no breach of the operational examination platform.

In its latest update, CBSE reiterated that cybersecurity teams are continuing to review the system to eliminate any remaining vulnerabilities.