The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) postponed the launch of its Post-Result Activities (PRA) portal after a cybersecurity review by teams from IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur identified multiple vulnerabilities. The portal, which helps students manage post-examination procedures, was originally scheduled to go live on June 1 but only became operational in the early hours of June 2.
According to officials familiar with the exercise, the review found at least four vulnerabilities classified as “critical” or of “high severity.” Additionally, at least seven medium- and low-severity issues were detected. The audit used a “red team-blue team” method, where the blue team—comprising CBSE’s original developers, IIT Madras experts, and the Digital India Corporation (DIC)—fixed vulnerabilities while the red team from IIT Kanpur attempted to breach the system.
Four rounds of testing were conducted. After the second round on June 1, officials believed major issues were resolved and prepared to launch. However, a later red team exercise uncovered significant vulnerabilities again, including a sophisticated access-control flaw that could allow a user logged into one account to access answer scripts of other students. The blue team worked through the evening to fix the problem.
Around midnight on June 1, after a fourth round of testing found no more significant vulnerabilities, final configuration changes were made. The portal opened around 4 am on June 2. Although the portal is now active, the re-evaluation process—where students can challenge their marks—has not yet begun.
Sources said CBSE has decided not to use the Coempt Edu Teck platform, which powered the On-Screen Marking (OSM) system for Class 12 paper evaluation, for the re-evaluation. Student and examination data held by Coempt has been moved to digital infrastructure directly controlled by CBSE. The re-evaluation workflow will now run through the Board’s own portal.
On May 24, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan asked expert teams from IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur to assist CBSE amid mounting complaints about the Board’s digital evaluation system and technical glitches. CBSE did not respond to requests for comment .
