Bug Bounty Hunting

Bug Bounty Hunting Mastery Roadmap

This detailed roadmap will take you from beginner to expert in Bug Bounty Hunting, covering reconnaissance, vulnerability identification, exploitation, reporting, and real-world practice.

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Phase 1: Fundamentals of Bug Bounty Hunting

✅ Introduction to Bug Bounty Hunting

• What is Bug Bounty Hunting? Legal Aspects & Ethics

• How Bug Bounty Platforms Work (HackerOne, BugCrowd, Intigriti, Open Bug Bounty)

• Understanding Responsible Disclosure & Private Programs

✅ Essential Web & Networking Knowledge

• HTTP Protocol (Requests, Responses, Headers, Status Codes)

• Cookies, Sessions, and Authentication Mechanisms

• DNS, Subdomains, and CDN Behavior

📌 Mini Projects:

• Analyze HTTP requests and responses using Burp Suite

• Map out a website’s structure and endpoints manually

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Phase 2: Reconnaissance & Information Gathering

✅ Passive Reconnaissance

• Google Dorking & OSINT Techniques

• Finding Sensitive Information in Public Repositories (GitHub, Pastebin)

• Discovering Subdomains (Subfinder, Amass, Assetfinder)

✅ Active Reconnaissance

• Port Scanning & Service Enumeration (Nmap, Masscan)

• Web Technology Fingerprinting (WhatWeb, Wappalyzer)

• Directory & File Bruteforcing (dirb, dirsearch, ffuf)

📌 Mini Projects:

• Automate subdomain enumeration using OSINT tools

• Create a custom recon script using Python or Bash

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Phase 3: Web Application Security & Exploitation

✅ Understanding OWASP Top 10 Vulnerabilities

• SQL Injection (SQLMap, Manual SQLi)

• Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) (XSSer, BeEF)

• Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

• Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)

• Security Misconfigurations

✅ Advanced Web Exploitation

• HTTP Request Smuggling

• API Security & Token Manipulation

• Server-Side Template Injection (SSTI)

• Business Logic & Authorization Bypasses

📌 Mini Projects:

• Exploit SQL Injection on a test website

• Manually find and exploit an XSS vulnerability

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Phase 4: Advanced Hunting & Bug Discovery Techniques

✅ Real-World Bug Hunting Strategies

• Understanding How Companies Secure Their Applications

• Hunting for IDOR (Insecure Direct Object References)

• Chaining Multiple Vulnerabilities for Impact

✅ Automating Recon & Bug Hunting

• Using Nuclei for Automated Vulnerability Scanning

• Writing Custom Burp Suite Extensions

• Automating Bug Hunting Workflows with Bash & Python

📌 Mini Projects:

• Create a custom vulnerability scanner with Python

• Write automation scripts for bug bounty recon

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Phase 5: Reporting & Earning from Bug Bounties

✅ Writing Professional Bug Reports

• How to Structure a Bug Report

• Providing Proof of Concept (PoC) Videos & Screenshots

• Avoiding Duplicate & Low-Quality Reports

✅ Scaling Up Bug Bounty Earnings

• Targeting Private Bug Bounty Programs

• Joining Security Research Communities

• Balancing Automation & Manual Testing

📌 Mini Projects:

• Submit a well-documented report to a bug bounty platform

• Write a research blog on a discovered vulnerability

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Final Step: Real-World Testing & Practice

🔥 Bug Bounty Platforms to Practice:

• HackerOne (Most popular bug bounty platform)

• BugCrowd (Diverse public & private programs)

• Intigriti (EU-focused bounty platform)

• Open Bug Bounty (Publicly disclosed vulnerabilities)

🚀 By mastering this roadmap, you’ll be able to: ✅ Find and Report Security Vulnerabilities in Web Applications ✅ Earn from Bug Bounties by Identifying High-Impact Issues ✅ Automate Reconnaissance & Vulnerability Discovery ✅ Build a Strong Reputation as a Security Researcher

🔥 Start hunting bugs now! 🐞💻