How to become a bug bounty hunter
Interestingly, a bug hunter is the reporter who is rewarded for finding out the vulnerabilities in websites and software. No certification or qualification is required to become a bug bounty hunter but the architecture of the application and the security issues in applications should be read thoroughly. Becoming a bug hunter is also not a matter of age, so get that out of the way.
To become a bug hunter, the crucial aspect is to learn about web application technologies and mobile application technologies. These are the things that will kick-start your career as a bug bounty hunter. Usually, if you form a team with a friend, it will help you bounce off ideas and work more closely with them in order to produce better reports and results
Bug bounty hunting is considered to be a desirable skill nowadays and it is the highest paid skill as well. A bug bounty hunter conventionally makes more than a software developer. It is advised to start small. Instead of finding and hitting large programs, start off with smaller programs and try to find vulnerabilities and bugs. When you are done with several little code and programs, then you may move on to some bigger programs. But do not jump over the software managing the entire company, despite some moderate sized software.
There are many books available online to guide and help you in learning the basics and fundamentals of penetration testing and bug hunting. As bug bounties generally are about to comprise website targets, it is advised to start with website hacking and then move forward. It is essential to focus on the interesting and exciting area of hacking
Practicing what you learned
At the time of learning, it is crucial that you understand and retain whatever you learn. Practice what you have learned in real time. Vulnerable applications and systems are great ways to test your skill set in virtual environments. This will also provide you with an estimate of what you are going to contribute in the real world.
Following the tips, by now you may have acquired a brief understanding of how to look for and deal with security vulnerabilities. So, the next step is to check what other bug bounty hunters are finding out and working on. Fortunately, the security community is pretty generous in sharing knowledge and a list of write-ups and tutorials is available to enhance your understanding. This can be done by viewing reports.
By time you read POCs, you are almost about to start bug bounty hunting. But to start off with bug bounty hunting, you need to learn how the bug bounties work and how to get started with the procedure. This is done in order to assure and maximize the chances of success. Here are some resources that you can learn from:
- H1 nobbed
- Facebook's disclosure blog
- Jack Whitton's blog
- Frans Rosen's blog
- Rafay Baloch's blog
When you are new or at a beginner level, then it is suggested not to try to hack the most public and common bugs. If you start off with hacking Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and other popular platforms, it is likely that you will end up frustrated because these sites are secure, as they have received and resolved many bug reports. Instead of targeting such sites, try to focus on the bounties that go ignored and unnoticed by other hackers and hunters.
The most exciting thing about hacking is that it is a long journey of learning. There is always something new and interesting going around about hacking. A number of new articles and presentations are always available to learn from. There are many interesting people and experts to meet at conferences which, creates more opportunities to pursue in this field.
Rules of bug bounty hunting
We will study the rules of bug bounty hunting in the following sections.
Targeting a bug is not a matter of luck. Instead, it is considered to be a matter of skills and luck. Don't waste time on finding the already reported bugs. Otherwise, you may end up being depressed by the duplication. It is suggested to spend time on understanding the functionality of the application. Also, try making notes and have a track of suspicious endpoints. You are not going to earn a satisfactory amount for the known issues if you are too early or the first one to report. If you get to know about a program within 10 to 12 hours of its launch, don't waste your time in looking for the issues at the surface level; rather, take a deep dive into the application.
If you are inspecting for vulnerabilities such as CSRF, XSS, subdomains, and so on, then you may end up getting several duplicates or not getting any bug at all. It is suggested to first check their documentation and then understand the functionalities and privileges of target users.
Don't expect any specific reward after reporting the bug. So, whenever you report a bug, close the report and start looking for other bugs and vulnerabilities. Develop a mindset of hunting bugs instead of hunting bugs in a matter of hours.
A pretty common scenario is that a lot of new bounty hunters just start searching for bugs without having a basic knowledge of how things work. As far as my personal experience is concerned, you will not get to know how an application works and the flow of the application until and unless you know how it is built. It is vital to know how the application is built in a programming language before you start breaking it
Keeping yourself up-to-date
- Create a Twitter handle and go to the HackerOne leaderboard: https://hackerone.com/leaderboard/all-time.
- Go to their HackerOne profile one by one and follow them on Twitter. Keep on marking their pages.
- Read the HackerOne disclosed activity at http://h1.nobbd.de/.
- Join Bug Bounty World on Slack and keep reading their blogs, tools, general channels, and their conversations about testing, and share what you know.
In order to automate your vulnerabilities, you need to learn scripting and learning a programming language is highly recommended. JS, Python, Ruby, Bash, and so on. are some of the best scripting languages that even know some curl tricks for basic bash commands scripting.
It is saddening when a bug hunter receives no bounty. However, getting no bounty adds to experience and knowledge. You can always take bug bounty hunting in a positive way and motivate yourself.
Whenever you identify a vulnerability, the foremost question should be, what security impact is the bug going to make on the application? You can either start hunting with the goal of finding a bug or you can start hunting with a vision of looking for the best impact in the application. The former vision is an isolated one, whereas, the latter upholds a wider point of view.
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