The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has said that vulnerabilities identified in the OnMark portal operated by its service provider have been contained, following concerns raised publicly about
potential security weaknesses in the system.
In a statement posted on X, CBSE said it has been closely monitoring the reported vulnerabilities and has deployed an expert team of cybersecurity professionals over the past few days. The board said specialists from various government agencies and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have been working to strengthen the platform’s security architecture and move it to a more secure setup.
We have been closely monitoring the vulnerabilities in the OnMark portal of our service provider that are being flagged in the public domain. An expert team of cybersecurity professionals has been deployed over the last few days from across various arms of the government as well…
— CBSE HQ (@cbseindia29) May 31, 2026
“The identified vulnerabilities have been contained, and other exploitable weaknesses are being ruled out,” CBSE said in its post, adding that it was grateful to alert citizens and ethical hackers who highlighted the issues.
The statement comes days after reports emerged that a teenager and cybersecurity researcher had flagged alleged vulnerabilities in the board’s On-Screen Marking (OSM) system. The researcher claimed the flaws could potentially allow unauthorized access to examiner accounts and other sensitive functions. The allegations triggered widespread discussion on social media and raised concerns about the security of CBSE’s digital evaluation infrastructure.
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, the board reiterated that cybersecurity teams are continuing to review the system to eliminate any remaining vulnerabilities. It also said it had directly reached out to some of the ethical hackers who reported the issues and invited others with relevant information to contact its security team.
The development comes amid increased scrutiny of digital examination and evaluation platforms, with educational institutions facing growing pressure to strengthen cybersecurity safeguards and protect sensitive academic data.
