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Mo’men Elmady, a Cyber Security Student and Bug Hunter, recently achieved a remarkable milestone by ranking in the Top 10 of Bugcrowd’s Intercom Public Bug Bounty Program within just one month. His success included:
– 24 Accepted vulnerabilities with bounties ($$$$)
– 2 Pending (Triaged)
– 29 Duplicate submissions
– 13 Rejected (Paywall bypass/Out of Scope)
This accomplishment highlights the importance of persistence, skill, and strategic vulnerability hunting in bug bounty programs.
You Should Know: Essential Bug Bounty Techniques & Commands
To replicate such success, aspiring bug hunters must master reconnaissance, vulnerability scanning, and exploitation. Below are key tools, commands, and methodologies used in bug bounty hunting:
1. Reconnaissance & Subdomain Enumeration
- Subfinder (Fast subdomain discovery):
subfinder -d example.com -o subdomains.txt
- Amass (In-depth subdomain mapping):
amass enum -d example.com -o amass_results.txt
- Assetfinder (Passive subdomain collection):
assetfinder --subs-only example.com > assets.txt
2. Vulnerability Scanning
- Nuclei (Automated vulnerability scanning):
nuclei -l subdomains.txt -t ~/nuclei-templates/ -o nuclei_results.txt
- Gau (Fetching URLs for testing):
gau example.com | grep "=" | qsreplace '"><script>alert(1)</script>' | httpx -silent -status-code
3. Exploitation & Payload Testing
- SQLi Testing with SQLmap:
sqlmap -u "https://example.com/login?id=1" --batch --crawl=2
- XSS Payload Testing:
echo "https://example.com/search?q=" | waybackurls | gf xss | qsreplace '"><script>alert(1)</script>' | httpx -silent -status-code
4. Automation with Bash & Python
A simple bash script for continuous scanning:
!/bin/bash subfinder -d $1 -o subs.txt httpx -l subs.txt -o live_subs.txt nuclei -l live_subs.txt -t ~/nuclei-templates/ -o vulns.txt
What Undercode Say
Bug bounty hunting requires persistence, automation, and deep security knowledge. Key takeaways:
– Recon is King: The more surfaces you scan, the higher your chances of finding bugs.
– Automate Repetitive Tasks: Use scripts to speed up scanning and testing.
– Understand Scope: Avoid wasting time on out-of-scope vulnerabilities.
– Learn from Duplicates: Study past reports to identify common bug patterns.
Bonus Linux Commands for Security Researchers:
Monitor live HTTP traffic sudo tcpdump -i eth0 -w traffic.pcap Extract URLs from JavaScript files cat script.js | grep -Eo "(http|https)://[a-zA-Z0-9./?=_%:-]" Check for open ports on a target nmap -sV -T4 example.com Analyze HTTP headers for security misconfigurations curl -I https://example.com
Expected Output:
A structured, automated bug hunting workflow that maximizes findings while minimizing manual effort. Keep hunting, stay ethical, and happy hacking! 🚀
Relevant URLs:
References:
Reported By: 0xmatrix Bugcrowd – Hackers Feeds
Extra Hub: Undercode MoN
Basic Verification: Pass ✅
