NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Tuesday rejected claims circulating on social media about an alleged breach of its On-Screen Marking (OSM) system, clarifying that the portal mentioned in the viral posts was only a testing site and not the actual platform used for evaluating board exam answer sheets.In a statement posted on X, CBSE said, “In a post made by a user on social media, it has been claimed that the CBSE On Screen Marking (OSM) bearing URL: cbse.onmarks.co.in was compromised by him on 26.02.2026. This has also formed the basis for a few news articles.”The board clarified that the operational evaluation portal used during the Class 12 assessment process had a different URL and had not been compromised.“At the outset, it is clarified that the Portal used for evaluation of answer-books bore a different URL, which has neither been compromised nor does it have the vulnerabilities indicated in the said social media post,” CBSE said.It further explained that the cited portal was only an internal testing platform containing sample data. “The URL: cbse.onmarks.co.in is the testing site only with sample data for internal testing and review purposes,” the board added.CBSE said no actual evaluation data, marks or confidential student information were stored on the testing portal and asserted that “no security breaches have come to light”.
Teen claims major flaws in system
The clarification came days after a social media user identified as “Nisarga” claimed he had hacked into CBSE’s OSM portal used for Class 12 board exam evaluation.Describing himself as a cybersecurity researcher and a Class 12 student, Nisarga alleged in a series of posts on X that he had discovered “critical vulnerabilities” in the system.“I had hacked CBSE’s OSM (On-Screen Marking Portal) in February and had reported the vulnerabilities to CERT-In, but they were unable to patch most of them,” he claimed, PTI reported.He further alleged that the flaws allowed unauthorised access to examiner accounts, password resets and even alteration of marks.Speaking to a media channels, he claimed, “I could put marks on the answer sheet of the students.” According to his posts, the vulnerabilities included bypassing OTP verification, accessing internal pages without authentication and editing examiner details due to what he described as systemic security flaws.
CBSE says safeguards remain intact
Rejecting the allegations, CBSE maintained that the actual evaluation system includes robust safeguards and grievance redressal mechanisms to ensure transparency and integrity in the assessment process.“The Board would like to state that this system has been implemented for enhanced transparency in assessments with strong grievance redressal mechanisms built into it and would reassure all concerned about the strong safeguards implemented to ensure integrity of the platform actually deployed as regards any vulnerabilities,” it said.
Fresh scrutiny after student alleges sheet mix-up
The controversy comes amid growing criticism over technical glitches in CBSE’s post-result services, including portal crashes, payment failures and complaints related to scanned answer sheets.A Class 12 student, Vedant Shrivastava, recently alleged on social media that the Physics answer sheet uploaded under his roll number during the photocopy access process did not belong to him.“The Physics answer sheet sent by CBSE is not my answer sheet at all. I know this is not my handwriting and it did not have the questions I attempted,” he wrote on X.He claimed the handwriting and presentation were completely different from his own and said the discrepancy affected his PCM aggregate marks.“The handwriting style, letter formation, spacing, slant, sentence flow — everything is different. This is not a minor variation. It is completely different writing,” he said.Vedant also questioned the reliability of the OSM process and urged the board to verify his original physical answer sheet and audit the digitisation process.However, in a later update posted on Monday, the student said CBSE had contacted his family and provided the correct answer sheet.“We have got my correct answer sheet by CBSE. CBSE officials reached out to us in the evening and has sent my answer sheet. We were correct on our claims and the answer sheet indeed got exchanged,” he posted.
CBSE confirms technical glitch
In its response to Vedant on X, CBSE acknowledged the issue and said the correct answer sheet had been sent to the student’s registered email address.“Thank you for bringing your concern regarding your Physics answer book to our attention. Upon review, the matter has been examined, and the correct copy of your answer book has been sent to your registered email address,” the board said.CBSE further added, “Necessary action for updating your result, as applicable, is also being undertaken accordingly.”
Govt steps in over payment gateway issues
Earlier in the day, amid mounting complaints, Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan also held discussions with senior officials of four public sector banks, State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank and Indian Bank, to overhaul CBSE’s payment gateway system.The minister directed the banks to help create a more reliable and student-friendly payment ecosystem for services such as re-evaluation and obtaining photocopies of answer sheets. He also called for faster grievance redressal and automatic refunds in cases of failed or duplicate transactions.The banks assured the government that they would work with CBSE to strengthen the payment infrastructure with improved technical safeguards and monitoring systems.
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