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Introduction:
In the competitive arena of bug bounty hunting, a clear victory often hinges on systematic reconnaissance and a professional methodology, not just luck. A recent success by a student researcher, resulting in a $100 bounty from the Adidas security team, underscores a critical formula: persistent, intelligent recon combined with a clear demonstration of impact leads to tangible rewards. This case study deconstructs that formula into actionable technical steps, providing a blueprint for aspiring security researchers to identify and validate vulnerabilities in major corporate attack surfaces.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand and implement a multi-layered reconnaissance methodology to map an organization’s digital footprint.
- Learn to utilize open-source intelligence (OSINT) and automation tools to discover hidden subdomains, endpoints, and services.
- Develop the skills to filter findings, probe for common vulnerabilities, and construct a professional proof-of-concept report.
You Should Know:
- Phase 1: Expanding the Attack Surface with Subdomain Enumeration
The first step in any external assessment is to discover every possible entry point. A target’s main website (e.g.,adidas.com) is just the tip of the iceberg. Automated tools can find subdomains likeshop.adidas.com,api.staging.adidas.com, ordevportal.adidas.com, which often host less-secure applications.
Step-by-step guide:
Toolset: Use a combination of tools for comprehensive results. On Linux, install subfinder, assetfinder, and amass.
Command Execution:
Using subfinder passively subfinder -d adidas.com -silent > subdomains.txt Using amass for more intensive enumeration amass enum -passive -d adidas.com -o amass_subs.txt Combining and sorting unique results cat subdomains.txt amass_subs.txt | sort -u > all_subs.txt
What it does: These commands query various public sources (SSL certificates, search engines, DNS records) to compile lists of subdomains without directly probing the target. The merged list in `all_subs.txt` forms your primary target list.
- Phase 2: Discovering Alive Hosts and HTTP Services
Not all subdomains are active. Probing for live web servers filters the list to practical targets. This step identifies which hosts are running web services and their associated ports.
Step-by-step guide:
Toolset: `httpx` or `httprobe` are ideal for this task.
Command Execution:
Using httpx to check for HTTP/HTTPS services and retrieve page titles cat all_subs.txt | httpx -silent -title -status-code -tech-detect -o live_hosts.txt
What it does: This command takes your subdomain list, attempts to connect to each on ports 80 and 443 (and others), and outputs only the hosts that respond. The `-title` and `-tech-detect` flags provide valuable intelligence on the technology stack (e.g., WordPress, React, Nginx), guiding your next steps.
3. Phase 3: Unearthing Hidden Endpoints and Paths
Directories and files not linked from the main page, such as /admin, /backup, /api/v1/test, or /config.json, are frequent sources of leaks and vulnerabilities.
Step-by-step guide:
Toolset: Use content discovery wordlists with `feroxbuster` or gobuster.
Command Execution:
Using feroxbuster for recursive, aggressive discovery feroxbuster -u https://target.adidas.com -w /usr/share/wordlists/seclists/Discovery/Web-Content/common.txt -x php,json,bak -o ferox_scan.txt Using gobuster for a quicker, non-recursive scan gobuster dir -u https://target.adidas.com -w /usr/share/wordlists/dirb/common.txt -q -o gobuster_scan.txt
What it does: These tools brute-force common paths and file extensions. The `-x` flag in feroxbuster checks for backups of discovered files. Findings must be manually reviewed for sensitive data, configuration files, or unprotected administrative interfaces.
4. Phase 4: Automated Vulnerability Probing with Nuclei
Once you have a list of live hosts and interesting endpoints, you can use template-based scanners to check for known vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and exposed information.
Step-by-step guide:
Toolset: `nuclei` is the industry standard, with a vast community template library.
Command Execution:
Scan live hosts for common critical vulnerabilities cat live_hosts.txt | nuclei -t /path/to/nuclei-templates/http/cves/ -severity critical,high -o nuclei_critical_findings.txt Scan for common exposures like exposed panels, debug pages, and default logins cat live_hosts.txt | nuclei -t /path/to/nuclei-templates/http/exposures/ -o nuclei_exposures.txt
What it does: Nuclei sends crafted requests to detect thousands of known issues. It is fast and effective for filtering low-hanging fruit, but findings require manual verification to confirm they are real, exploitable, and within the program’s scope.
- Phase 5: Manual Testing and Proof-of-Concept (PoC) Development
Automation finds potential; manual testing confirms impact. This phase involves exploiting a found vulnerability, such as an IDOR (Insecure Direct Object Reference), SSRF (Server-Side Request Forgery), or logic flaw, to demonstrate tangible risk.
Step-by-step guide:
Scenario: Assume you found an API endpoint: `https://api.target.adidas.com/v1/orders/{order_id}`.
Testing for IDOR: Change the `order_id` parameter to another user’s order number. Use Burp Suite or a simple curl command.
With a valid cookie/session, test for IDOR curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN>" https://api.target.adidas.com/v1/orders/12345 curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN>" https://api.target.adidas.com/v1/orders/12346
What it does: If the second request returns another user’s order details, you have a confirmed IDOR vulnerability. Document every step: request, response, and how it violates access control. The PoC must be clear, repeatable, and irrefutable for the triage team.
6. Phase 6: Crafting the Professional Report
A well-structured report is what turns a finding into a bounty. It must communicate the risk clearly and efficiently to a busy security engineer.
Step-by-step guide:
Structure:
- Clear and concise (e.g., “IDOR in Order API Leads to Unauthorized Data Access”).
- Summary: One-paragraph overview of the vulnerability and its impact.
- Steps to Reproduce: Numbered, detailed steps with exact URLs, request/response snippets, and screenshots.
- Impact: A specific explanation of what an attacker could achieve (data theft, user impersonation, financial loss).
- Remediation: Suggested fix (e.g., implement proper authorization checks on all object accesses).
What it does: This format ensures the security team can quickly understand, validate, and prioritize your report, significantly increasing its acceptance rate.
What Undercode Say:
- Consistency Trumps Luck: Success in bug bounties is a product of daily, systematic effort in refining recon techniques and understanding application logic, not random chance.
- The Formula is Real: “Good recon + clear impact + proper reporting = results.” This is the core operational loop. Each element is a skill that can be trained, measured, and improved.
The researcher’s journey from student to paid Adidas contributor validates a methodical, learning-focused approach to cybersecurity. The bounty amount is less significant than the proven methodology and the credential it represents. This path demystifies elite hacking, showing it’s accessible to anyone willing to invest the time in mastering fundamental processes—processes that are equally valuable for defensive security professionals hardening systems against these exact techniques.
Prediction:
The barrier to entry for effective reconnaissance will continue to lower due to AI-powered tooling and increasingly sophisticated open-source frameworks. This will lead to a surge in the number of competent hunters, forcing organizations to adopt more proactive, continuous security testing and shift further left in their development cycles. Consequently, bug bounty programs will evolve to reward more complex, business-logic flaws found deep in applications, as surface-level bugs are rapidly automated away. The researcher’s mindset of systematic analysis will become even more critical than knowledge of any single tool.
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IT/Security Reporter URL:
Reported By: Mohd Farzaan – Hackers Feeds
Extra Hub: Undercode MoN
Basic Verification: Pass ✅
