Teen cybersecurity researcher alleges unauthorised access to nearly 1.8 lakh result records and 1.87 lakh admit card PDFs; institute says data was read-only and issue is being fixed.
Key Points
- IIT-Roorkee acknowledged a cloud storage configuration issue on the JEE-Advanced 2026 results portal after a cybersecurity researcher flagged it on X.
- The researcher claimed that about 1.79 lakh result records and 1.87 lakh admit card PDFs were accessible without authentication, exposing details such as names, dates of birth and mobile numbers.
- The institute said the exposed data was in read-only mode, ruling out any possibility of records being altered, and said corrective action was underway.
- IIT-Roorkee publicly thanked the researcher for responsibly reporting the issue and described his conduct as ethical.
- The disclosure comes amid scrutiny of national examination systems, following recent complaints of glitches and operational issues in exams such as CUET-UG, NEET-UG and CBSE-related processes.
Indian Institute of Technology-Roorkee has confirmed that the Joint Entrance Examination-Advanced 2026 results portal faced a cloud storage configuration issue after a teenager who identifies as a cybersecurity researcher claimed that personal and examination details of lakhs of students were accessible without authorisation.
The response from the IIT-Roorkee, which conducted the exam this year, came after the cybersecurity researcher 16-year-old Rylen Anil took to X, claiming that the public cloud storage endpoint of the result portal was accessible without authentication, exposing bulk candidate data.
The institute on Tuesday night said the data stored was in read-only mode, with no possibility of record alteration and added that the issue was being addressed on priority.
The user had alleged that around 1.79 lakh result records and 1.87 lakh admit card PDFs were accessible, along with personal details such as names, dates of birth and mobile numbers.
'JEE Advanced 2026 candidate/result infrastructure had a public cloud storage misconfiguration exposing bulk candidate data without auth. This exposed ~179.6k result records and ~187.3k admit-card PDFs, including candidate names, DOBs and mobile numbers,' Anil said on X.
Responding to the claim, IIT-Roorkee said, 'Thank you @DarthKermy72747 for pointing out the configuration issue in the cloud storage device. The same is being plugged on priority. The data stored was read-only and so there was no possibility of any alteration. We applaud your responsible and ethical behaviour.'
Latest in a string of exam-system glitches
The development comes amid a series of recent technical and operational issues reported in major national examination systems, including Common University Entrance Test-Undergraduate (CUET-UG), National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) and Central Bureau of Secondary Education (CBSE)-related processes, which have faced complaints ranging from technical glitches and server-related disruptions to challenges in application, evaluation and result-processing systems.
The JEE-Advanced is the gateway for admission to undergraduate programmes at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and several other premier engineering institutions across the country.
The results were declared on June 1, in which 56,880 candidates were qualified in the Joint Entrance Examination-Advanced 2026.
Of the total qualified candidates, 10,107 were female candidates, and 46,773 male candidates.
Only one third-gender candidate appeared for the examination, but they did not qualify.
The examination also saw 3,052 PwD registered candidates, of which 2,864 appeared in both papers and 887 of them qualified.
Shubham Kumar of the IIT Delhi zone secured the top rank, scoring 330 out of 360 marks.
Arohi Deshpande of the IIT Delhi zone emerged as the top-ranked female candidate with an All India Rank of 77.
She scored 280 out of 360 marks.
According to the results, a total of 1,79,694 candidates appeared in both papers of JEE (Advanced) 2026 conducted on May 17, out of 1,87,389 registered candidates.
© 2026