My Journey Till I Found My First valid VDP Bug

Hello Legendary Hunters,

Today I will be going to discuss all about me and my thought till I found my first valid bug (not duplicate) in VDP program.

I will try to make discuss and explanation(Journey,Thought,Frustration,Motive) as much simple as possible because so much things are coming in my mind. So without any due lets start!

Who I’m I: I’m Pawan Sharma a learner from India because I’m still learning. I’m studying in college. I do my bug hunting after college so I don’t get more time i.e, 7–8 hour per week.

How i Started: so it happened in year 2021 summer I was playing free fire,Clash of Clans and when any bots were coming in the game,it triggered my mind how do people are able to hack the game even if it is big company.

2022 Raise of my Journey: I started with kali termux because I was not having laptop. At that time I was not knowing about bug hunting,bounty,web hacking and other stuffs. I was only interested in hacking social media accounts and related stuffs. I was watching videos from youtube (Loi Ling Yang,Network chuck).

The Fall 2022: December was the month when I chose my first website from bugcrowd. I was not able to find anything. I was directly rushing to the website without seeing why the website is for? running all the tools blindly. Then I encountered what the actual frustration is:

Negative Thoughts: When I was and I am not able to find anything then sadness,angry,depression,anxiety,stress,crying,burn out,always being sad. I was like “why the hell I’m here?, why I chose ethical hacking?, what I’m I doing here”. Bug bounty is not meant for me,nothing is working,every new days was beginning with oh!site again today I’ve to hunt,no I can’t I’m exhausted and etc…. etc… and etc.. I can write hours on this but another time…

Positive Thoughts:

But their was and is someone in my mind who was shouting never give up,did u forget,It was you who chose this field,did you forgot what you wanted to be?don’t you see how far we have came? how can you stop now? If you stop now all your time,money,effort that you invested will be good for nothing! your negative thought will win on you and you will never achieve what you dreamed off! The negative mind will be pointing and laughing on you saying this person was dreaming to escape the matrix,the rat race and to be unique from others ha! what a joke.

Bug but Not Bug: The year 2023 January 17,I found something in a website when I reported this they said it was P5 Informational. I was not sad although it was P5 but for me it was like my hard work was paying me! I was in 7th heaven.

The Hard Work: From the start I was watching videos,reading write ups,blog,articles,discord,twitter and all the social media I connected my self to the hacking world,playing ctf’s, HTB,portswigger labs,pico ctf,DVWP and many more. But I didn’t solve complete challenges from any of this I was just covering the basic stuffs.

Bug But Duplicate: after several rejection at last but not least, on February 3rd 2023:

I was able to find a bug which was session fixation on VDP program which I discussed in my previous blog: https://medium.com/@the.bugcrowd.testerpawan/carelessness-leads-to-duplicate-bug-bounty-tips-95b481daabef. But duplicate and P4 category even though I was able to find something I was very happy all my depression was gone now I was laughing on those negative thought.

The Day: The year 2023 May 08 finally,

I found a bug which led me to unsubscribe anyone from a company which I will discuss in my next blog,after 4 days I got a response congratulations! your bug marked as valid bug and its P4 category. I can’t explain in words about my happiness but it was unbelievable for me. ❤

Last but not Least: I hope you read this blog and got some motivation, I always try to keep myself calm while hunting because anger sometimes leads to severe damage. When I lose motivation I take some rest and meditate for a while. I look back about how far I’ve came when I get demotivated. See you guys in my next blog if you liked this then please comment and give feedback….

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/sharmapawan1011