Bug Hunting & Automation

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Bug hunting isn’t just about running automated tools — it is an art of thinking differently and finding vulnerabilities that others overlook. If you are serious about bug bounties you need professional level recon techniques creative exploitation methods and smart automation tricks to maximize your chances of finding valid bugs.

This article will explore lesser known commands and techniques used by pro bug hunters to uncover high value security flaws

OSINT & Intelligence Gathering: Going Beyond Subfinder

Most bug hunters stop at basic subdomain enumeration. Pro hackers go deeper by using OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence) to gather hidden assets forgotten endpoints and leaked credentials.

Extract Domains from ASN (Autonomous System Numbers)

curl -s https://api.hackertarget.com/aslookup/?q=AS15169 | tee asn_domains.txtFinds associated domains used by the target company but not listed in standard subdomain enumeration.

Advanced Directory & File Fuzzing

Instead of blindly running dirsearch smart hackers use context aware fuzzing to find hidden admin panels debug endpoints and development portals.

Smart Fuzzing with Parameter Injection

ffuf -u https://target.com/FUZZ -w wordlists/parameters.txt -mc 200,403 -fs 12345Finds hidden parameters that could be vulnerable to IDOR, SQLi, or SSRF

Finding Debug Panels & Internal Tools

feroxbuster -u https://target.com -w wordlists/debug.txt -e -t 50Developers leave debug panels exposed which often contain sensitive internal data

API Testing & Finding Vulnerable Endpoints

Modern applications rely on APIs making them a goldmine for bug hunters. Instead of scanning randomly professionals target exposed forgotten or undocumented API endpoints.

Find API Endpoints Using Wayback Machine

waybackurls target.com | grep "/api/" | tee wayback_apis.txtOld APIs often have less security than newer versions

Enumerate Hidden API Methods