Handy Tools for Beginner Bug Bounty Hunters

As a novice bug bounty hunter or beginner level ethical hacker, it can be overwhelming to navigate the vast landscape of tools available for identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities. In this blog post, we’ll highlight some of the most popular and useful tools that can help you get started on your journey.

Burp Suite: Burp Suite is a web application security testing tool that can be used to identify vulnerabilities in web applications. It includes a proxy tool that allows you to intercept and modify network traffic, as well as a spider that can be used to automatically crawl a web application. Burp Suite also includes a number of other tools for performing tasks such as automated scanning, manual testing, and reporting.

OWASP ZAP: OWASP ZAP (short for Zed Attack Proxy) is an open-source web application security scanner that can be used to identify vulnerabilities in web applications. It is a powerful tool that can be used to perform automated and manual testing, and it includes features such as an active scanner, a spider, and a fuzzer.

Nmap: Nmap (short for Network Mapper) is a network mapping tool that can be used to identify open ports and services on a target system. It can be used to perform tasks such as network discovery, service detection, and OS detection. Nmap is a command-line tool, but it also has a GUI version called Zenmap.

Metasploit: Metasploit is an exploitation framework that can be used to exploit vulnerabilities in systems and applications. It includes a large number of pre-built exploits, payloads, and modules that can be used to perform tasks such as penetration testing and vulnerability scanning.

Wireshark: Wireshark is a network protocol analyzer that can be used to capture and analyze network traffic. It is a powerful tool that can be used to identify network-level vulnerabilities and perform tasks such as packet analysis and protocol decoding.

John the Ripper: John the Ripper is a password cracking tool that can be used to crack password hashes. It is a command-line tool that supports a wide range of hash types and includes features such as a brute-force attack mode and a dictionary attack mode.

sqlmap: sqlmap is a tool that automates the process of detecting and exploiting SQL injection vulnerabilities. It is a command-line tool that supports a wide range of database management systems and includes features such as automatic detection of SQL injection vulnerabilities, automatic exploitation of SQL injection vulnerabilities, and automatic data extraction.

These are just a few examples of the many tools available to bug bounty hunters and ethical hackers. As you gain more experience and confidence, you may find that you want to explore other tools and techniques. However, these tools provide a good starting point and can help you quickly identify and exploit vulnerabilities in your target systems.