Amey-Thakur Bug bounty
A bug bounty is authorized security testing under a program's rules, for a reward. The rules are the whole game: staying in scope keeps it legal and paid, and a clear report is what turns a finding into a bounty. Skill is hunting efficiently where the value is, then reporting it so a triager can confirm it in minutes.
Method
- Read the scope and rules before touching anything. The program's policy defines in-scope assets, explicitly out-of-scope targets, permitted testing, and the safe-harbor terms that make your testing legal. Testing outside scope is unauthorized access, not research, with real legal consequences (see penetration-test-prep's authorization ethic). Know the rules cold first.
- Recon and map within scope. Enumerate the in-scope surface (subdomains, endpoints, APIs, parameters, roles, features), understand the application's logic and trust boundaries (see threat-modeling), and prioritize where bugs and value concentrate: authentication, access control, input handling, and business logic.
- Hunt by vulnerability class and by what the program pays for. Work systematically through the high-value classes: broken access control and IDOR, injection (SQL, command, SSRF: see the defense skills for what to probe), authentication and session flaws, and business-logic abuse (often the highest-impact and least-duplicated). Chain low-severity bugs into higher-impact findings where possible.
- Prove it with a minimal, safe PoC. Demonstrate the vulnerability with the least intrusive proof: enough to confirm impact, never more. Do not exfiltrate real user data beyond a redacted proof, do not pivot deeper, do not degrade or destroy anything, and stop the moment impact is proven. Over-exploiting turns a valid finding into a rules violation.
- Check for duplicates and inflated severity. Rate impact honestly against the real attacker gain and the program's scale (see vulnerability-triage's severity thinking); inflated reports lose credibility. Search your own history and the program's disclosed reports to avoid known duplicates, and report distinct issues separately.
- Report so a triager can reproduce it fast. A clear title, honest severity, the exact affected asset, numbered reproduction steps, a PoC, the concrete impact, and a remediation suggestion (see the bug-bounty-report prompt). The report's quality determines whether a real bug is accepted, deduped, or closed as unclear. Then follow the program's coordinated-disclosure timeline; do not go public early.
Boundaries
- This is authorized testing under a specific program's scope only; it is not a license to attack systems you are not invited to test. Out-of-scope or no-program testing is illegal regardless of intent (see the authorization requirement in penetration-test-prep).
- Never cause harm: no destructive testing, no accessing or exfiltrating real user data beyond minimal proof, no denial of service unless the program explicitly permits it. Stop at proof of impact.
- Responsible disclosure is binding: follow the program's timeline and channel, do not disclose publicly before coordination, and do not use a finding for anything but the report (see security-incident-response for the defender's side).