We study the structure of mod 2 cohomology rings of oriented Grassmannians $$\widetilde{{\text {Gr}}}_k(n)$$
Gr
~
k
(
n
)
of oriented k-planes in $${\mathbb {R}}^n$$
R
n
. Our main focus is on the structure of the cohomology ring $$\textrm{H}^*(\widetilde{{\text {Gr}}}_k(n);{\mathbb {F}}_2)$$
H
∗
(
Gr
~
k
(
n
)
;
F
2
)
as a module over the characteristic subring C, which is the subring generated by the Stiefel–Whitney classes $$w_2,\ldots ,w_k$$
w
2
,
…
,
w
k
. We identify this module structure using Koszul complexes, which involves the syzygies between the relations defining C. We give an infinite family of such syzygies, which results in a new upper bound on the characteristic rank of $$\widetilde{{\text {Gr}}}_k(2^t)$$
Gr
~
k
(
2
t
)
, $$k<2^t$$
k
<
2
t
, and formulate a conjecture on the exact value of the characteristic rank of $$\widetilde{{\text {Gr}}}_k(n)$$
Gr
~
k
(
n
)
. For the case $$k=3$$
k
=
3
, we use the Koszul complex to compute a presentation of the cohomology ring $$H=\textrm{H}^*(\widetilde{{\text {Gr}}}_3(n);{\mathbb {F}}_2)$$
H
=
H
∗
(
Gr
~
3
(
n
)
;
F
2
)
for $$2^{t-1}<n\le 2^t-4$$
2
t
-
1
<
n
≤
2
t
-
4
for $$t\ge 4$$
t
≥
4
, complementing existing descriptions in the cases $$n=2^t-i$$
n
=
2
t
-
i
, $$i=0,1,2,3$$
i
=
0
,
1
,
2
,
3
for $$t\ge 3$$
t
≥
3
. More precisely, as a C-module, H splits as a direct sum of the characteristic subring C and the anomalous module H/C, and we compute a complete presentation of H/C as a C-module from the Koszul complex. We also discuss various issues that arise for the cases $$k>3$$
k
>
3
, supported by computer calculation.