NahamCon2021 - Putting Your Mind to It: Bug Bounties for 12 Months - @zseano

Z Seano (Sean), founder of bugbountyhunter.com, delivers a strategy-focused talk on sustained bug bounty hunting over 12 months. He emphasizes that with proper methodology, dedication, and patience, anyone—experienced or inexperienced—can discover vulnerabilities and earn bounties.

Core Philosophy: Understand Features, Not Just Bug Types Seano argues against "spraying payloads everywhere." Instead, hunters should understand how website features work: login flows, account updates, token exchanges, developer tools, and mobile apps. For example, recognizing that SSO token exchanges enable open redirect attacks, or that IDOR vulnerabilities appear in profile edits and permission systems, sharpens targeting.

Methodology: Start Harmless, Then Test Intelligently Rather than immediately testing malicious payloads, begin with what the application expects. For an open redirect parameter, test the legitimate domain first, then explore variations: subdomains, different encodings, trailing slashes, relative paths. Similarly, for XSS, inject harmless HTML before script tags to confirm reflection and understand filtering. This reveals how the application handles input and what bypasses are possible. Seano notes that understanding SQL injection requires only testing a single quote first to confirm vulnerability; XXE testing should start with basic DOCTYPE replacements.

Selecting and Committing to Programs Seano recommends choosing programs with large scope and interactive features (login, upload, post content). Spend 6–12 months on a single target to deeply understand its architecture, code reuse patterns, and potential issues across subdomains or teams. Example: Google's .com and .cn versions may be separate codebases, each harboring different vulnerabilities. He cautions against relying on bug bounty platform invites; instead, hunters should proactively access public programs like Google VRP without needing formal invitations.

Leverage Disclosed Write-Ups Seano emphasizes studying published vulnerability reports (e.g., Sam Curry's Apple disclosures) to identify endpoints, parameters, bug types, and developer fixes. Since developers reuse code, similar vulnerabilities often appear elsewhere. After finding one IDOR in a specific path, test that pattern across the entire application. Read disclosed reports carefully, follow the hacker's steps, and test for bypasses—the original fix may contain weaknesses.

The 12-Month Google VRP Challenge Seano sets a concrete task: Hunt on Google's Vulnerability Reward Program for the next year. Steps include: - Catalog all disclosed Google VRP write-ups, documenting endpoints, parameters, vulnerability types, and fixes - Map Google subdomains and in-scope services (Gmail, Google Drive, Google Ads, etc.) - Test login flows consistently across subdomains and platforms (desktop, mobile, Android, iOS user agents) - Investigate permission and role systems, verify they work correctly across platforms - Write comprehensive notes to identify patterns and recognize similar code

Speaker Credentials: Self-taught developer from age 11–12, web application hacker who achieved BugCrowd rank 2 by focusing on one program for 8–9 months. Sponsors bugbountyhunter.com, which teaches vulnerability identification and runs "hack events" mentoring members on live bug bounty programs.

Key Takeaways: Websites follow common patterns; mastering one program's logic accelerates finding bugs on others. Understanding features, systematic testing, extensive notes, and 6–12 months of focused effort yield far better results than casual scanning or random payload spraying. The sky is the limit for those committed to the process.