A 19-year-old cybersecurity researcher, Nisarga Adhikary, has flagged critical vulnerabilities in the Central Board of Secondary Education's On-Screen Marking (OSM) portal. He claims these flaws could allow unauthorized access to examiner accounts, risking the integrity of marks for over two million students. CBSE disputes these claims, asserting that the affected URL was merely a testing platform.

• 01Nisarga Adhikary discovered vulnerabilities in the CBSE OSM portal on February 25, 2026, and reported them to CERT-In.
• 02The vulnerabilities included a hardcoded master password and insecure frontend architecture, allowing potential unauthorized access to examiner accounts.
• 03CBSE officials claim the core database remains secure and that the portal was taken offline for security optimization after the vulnerabilities were reported.
• 04The controversy has intensified amid complaints about post-result discrepancies from students and parents.
• 05Government sources assert that rigorous security measures are in place to protect student data from unauthorized alterations.

The reported vulnerabilities could undermine the integrity of academic evaluations for millions of students, affecting their future opportunities.