Bug Bounty Hunting Challenges

This lab bridges everything you've learned across Path 11 (web security) and this path's earlier lessons into real hunting practice — starting with beginner-friendly vulnerability classes before pushing you toward an actual submission.

Beginner challenges

Find IDOR on a test program. Using the two-account method from this path's IDOR lesson, register two accounts on a public bug bounty program's test/staging environment (many programs explicitly welcome this) or a dedicated practice platform, and systematically test every endpoint that references an ID for access control failures.
Hunt for open redirects. Look for any parameter that controls a redirect destination (?redirect=, ?next=, ?returnUrl=) and test whether it accepts an arbitrary external URL:
```
https://target.com/login?redirect=https://evil-example.com
```
Open redirects are frequently underestimated but genuinely useful in phishing chains — a link to the real, trusted domain that silently redirects to an attacker-controlled page is far more convincing than an obviously fake URL.
Test for XSS in comments. Revisit the techniques from Path 11's XSS practical lab against a real (in-scope) bug bounty target — comment fields, review sections, and profile bios are consistently among the highest-yield places to find stored XSS in real applications.
Check for missing security headers. A quick, low-effort but genuinely useful first pass on any new target: check the response headers for Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security (all covered in Path 05 and Path 12) using curl -sI <target>. Missing headers alone are usually low severity on their own, but they're fast to check, help you build a quick risk profile of a target before deeper testing, and occasionally combine with another finding into something more severe (a missing X-Frame-Options header enabling a clickjacking chain, for instance).
Look for exposed version control or backup files. Try requesting /.git/config, /.env, /backup.sql, and similar common accidentally-exposed paths directly — a shockingly common, embarrassingly simple finding that requires no special tooling, just knowing which paths are worth trying on every new target.

Tools you should know

Burp Suite — your primary interception and testing tool, covered throughout Path 11.
Nuclei — a free, fast vulnerability scanner using community-maintained templates, referenced in this path's automation lesson.
Subfinder — fast subdomain enumeration, the starting point of the recon pipeline covered next in this path.

Building good hunting habits

Every bug bounty program defines exactly what's in scope (which domains, which vulnerability types) and what's explicitly disallowed (often things like automated scanning at high volume, social engineering, or physical testing). Reading this document fully, every time, before testing a new program is non-negotiable — testing outside scope, even accidentally, can get your account banned or, in rare cases, cross into legal risk.

Pick one program on HackerOne or Intigriti (both host large numbers of legitimate, well-run programs, many with generous scope for beginners), read its policy fully, and submit at least one valid, well-written report using the structure from Path 14's Reporting lab — even a low-severity, informational finding is a genuine, real accomplishment worth completing and documenting in your GitHub portfolio (Path 20).

Key takeaway

The beginner-friendly vulnerability classes covered here — IDOR, open redirects, stored XSS — remain consistently among the most commonly found and paid bug bounty categories precisely because they require careful, methodical testing rather than exotic technique, which is exactly the skill this lab (and this entire course) has been building toward.

Next up → Logic Bug Hunting Lab