Turning XSS into Account Takeover (ATO): How to Level Up Your Exploit $$$

Summary

Hi guys,
Today we’ll be talking about how you can escalate an XSS vulnerability into an Account Takeover (ATO); one of the most impactful escalations you can achieve in bug bounty hunting or pentesting.

XSS often gets dismissed as “just a P4/Low” vulnerability (sometimes Medium severity at best), but with the right approach and persistence, it can turn into a P1/Critical bounty.
Stick with me, and I’ll walk you through how stored XSS can lead to full account control, using a real-world example involving a GraphQL API.

Let’s be honest , when you first find an XSS vulnerability, it’s easy to feel underwhelmed.
You test a form, you inject <payload>, a pop-up shows, and you think:

“Oh great, another P4/low bug. Maybe Medium if I’m lucky.”

But what if I told you that the same XSS could unlock someone’s entire account?
Would you still call it “just a pop-up”?

That’s what we’re covering today; how to think beyond the pop-up and turn XSS into a full-blown Account Takeover (ATO).