The Bug Bounty program offers rewards to the users for the successful discovery of bugs in the network. The race between bug hunters to find security vulnerabilities as quickly as possible makes the process even more dynamic. This blog is curated with the skills required to become a Bug Bounty Hunter. But before digging up the skills, let’s get a clear understanding of what Bug Bounty Hunting is?
The term ‘Bug Bounty Hunting‘ means finding technical defects in the coding scripts that might compromise the security of any application, validating and reporting the error to the concerned authority. The hunter gets a reward in monetary terms and recognition for the work.
Skills needed to
become a Bug Bounty Hunter
The following are the skills required to become a Bug Bounty Hunter:
- Cybersecurity
skills: Bug Bounty hunters should
possess basic cybersecurity skills such as understanding hacking and good
computer networking and cloud computing knowledge.
- Use
of proxy server: One of the essential skills is
using a proxy server which acts as an interface between the application
server and the browser. Bug bounty hunters use mainly three proxies: Burp
Suite, Tamper Data, and Zed Attack Proxy.
- Web
Hacking skills: Most bug bounty programs are
on web platforms. Bug bounty hunters must perform tests on websites to
identify the vulnerability. Web hacking is the easiest way to provide good
ROI.
- Web
technology: Use Web technologies such as
Cross-site scripting, Insecure Direct Object References, and Open Redirect
to discover bugs and web vulnerabilities.
- Hardcoded
credential: Use of hardcoded credentials
or API keys to access web services in the mobile applications
- Recon
skills: The ability to identify new
assets and vulnerabilities is one of the most effective skills for the bug
bounty hunter.
- Automation
skills: Automation skills are
beneficial for automating the repetitive tasks performed by the bug
bounties using programming scripts.
- Read
Program scripts: Reading program scripts like
Java, C, C+, etc., helps to leak the information that can be hidden
endpoints, hardcoded secrets, and insecure front-end logic.
- Continuous learning: A bug bounty hunter should possess steep continuous learning skills to develop and pursue the latest techniques to find new bugs.
Bug bounty hunters prevent unethical hackers from identifying bugs in the early stages. The Bug Bounty program aims to test the security of companies’ digital assets. The vulnerabilities that emerged with the Bug Bounty hunt are eliminated, resulting in more robust and secure software. It can be called continuous security audit & improvement and is significant for researchers to be equipped and planned in Bug Bounty hunting.
Bug Bounty Hunting Training
with InfosecTrain