Bug Hunting

Bug hunting is all about ethical cybercriminals who, as a hobby or a business, find security issues or bugs in online companies. Major technology giants such as Facebook, Google and Apple have regularized the bug bounty programs in their operations. It is also a very high paying job. Bounty hunters, who are highly paid individuals, are typically called bail reinforcement agents. Bounty hunting can be considered risky if one lacks the training and the information on how it generally goes.

Process of bug hunting

Bug hunting, also known as vulnerability testing or ethical hacking, is the process of searching for security vulnerabilities in software, websites, or computer systems. It’s an essential part of maintaining the security of any technology, and it’s a challenging and rewarding field to work in.

There are several approaches to bug hunting, but the most effective method is to follow a structured approach. This approach involves four key steps: reconnaissance, scanning, exploitation, and reporting.

The first step in bug hunting is reconnaissance. This involves gathering information about the target system or software that you’re testing. You can use a variety of tools and techniques to gather information, including Google dorking, port scanning, and social engineering. The goal is to identify potential entry points and weaknesses in the system.

The next step is scanning, which involves using automated tools to search for vulnerabilities in the target system. These tools include vulnerability scanners and network sniffers. They can identify common vulnerabilities such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and buffer overflow.

Once you’ve identified vulnerabilities, the next step is exploitation. This involves using the vulnerabilities to gain access to the system or software. This can include things like escalating privileges, bypassing authentication, or executing arbitrary code.

Finally, reporting is the process of documenting and reporting any vulnerabilities that you’ve found. This involves writing a detailed report that outlines the vulnerability, the steps taken to exploit it, and any potential impact on the system. The report should also include recommendations for remediation.

Bug hunting is a challenging but rewarding field to work in. It requires a deep understanding of computer systems and security, as well as the ability to think creatively and outside the box. Successful bug hunters are passionate about security and are always looking for new and innovative ways to identify vulnerabilities and improve the security of technology. If you’re interested in bug hunting, there are plenty of resources available online to help you get started, including tutorials, training courses, and online communities.

Top Bug Bounty Platforms

- Hackerone

- Bugcrowd

- Synack

- Cobalt

Web Application Hacker’s Handbook

Mastering Modern Web Application Penetration Testing

Web Hacking 101

Some are completely new to the idea of web development with little prior programming experience, some are experienced web developers with no experience in cybersecurity while some are highly skilled cybersecurity professionals. The steps that should be taken are the same for everyone, one can, however, skip one or more steps based on his/her skills and experience.

Let’s get started with these steps:

1. Learn Computer Networking:

A decent knowledge of Computer Networks is very much necessary for getting started with the bug bounty. Though you’re not required to have expertise in the computer networking domain to get started with bug bounty — but you should be proficient at least with the fundamentals of inter-networking, IP addresses, MAC addresses, OSI stack (and TCP/IP stack), etc. You can learn it from some of the quality online resources like GeeksforGeeks Computer Networks.

2. Get Familiarized With Web Technologies:

This includes getting a basic understanding of web programming and web protocols. Web programming languages are JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. A beginner to intermediate level proficiency with these languages is more than enough in the beginning. The protocols you should learn about are HTTP, FTP, TLS, etc. These can be learned from the corresponding RFCs or from numerous offline or online resources available over the web.

3. Learning Web Application Security Measures and Hacking Techniques:

This will include learning about common security mechanisms, security practices, their bypasses, common vulnerabilities in web applications, ways to find these vulnerabilities, and ways to patch and prevent the applications from these vulnerabilities. Useful resources are:

4. Practicing and Polishing Your Skills:

Practicing helps in developing a framework for approaching a target. The more you practice on diverse targets of different difficulty levels the easier it will be for you to approach a web application in a way that increases your chances of finding a critical vulnerability (or even finding a vulnerability if the application is well-secured and has been already tested by many hunters). Try making great use of these resources:

Vulnerable Web Applications: These are intentionally vulnerable virtual machines or web app packages. Vulnerable web applications are available as general variants that contain many types of vulnerabilities and as dedicated variants that focus on a single vulnerability and its subtleties. Some examples are:

BWappDVWAOWASP WebgoatCyclone TransfersBricksButterfly Security ProjectHacmeJuice ShopRails GoatSQLolBWapp, DVWA(Damn Vulnerable Web Application), and Webgoat are the best for beginners.

5. Testing Real Targets:

After you are thoroughly done with your basics and have a decent level of skill, you can start doing the actual hunting on real websites. A lot of websites run bug bounty programs for their web assets. Some big names are:

FacebookTwitterGoogleVerizonStarbucksShopifySpotifyApple

These companies reward generously but finding a security bug on any of their assets is highly difficult due to tough competition. You must remember that the top bug bounty hunters of the world are testing these websites along with you. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t find something at all.

6. Staying Current on Latest Vulnerabilities:

For this, you can follow elite researchers and learn from their work. You can also read disclosed reports on bug bounty platforms like HackerOne. Some recommended researchers to follow are:

Frans RosénJason HaddixGeekboyPortSwiggerJobert Abma

You need to know that if you really want to get started with bug bounty then it doesn’t matter what is your academic background or what is your current working domain — you simply can start learning the required skills and tools and start doing the actual hunting!!