Top 15 Tools You Must Know for Bug Bounty Hunting

Bug bounty hunting is a competitive domain requiring a deep understanding of vulnerabilities and a well selected toolkit. These tools help in reconnaissance, scanning, and exploitation processes, helping you become more efficient and effective.

What is Bug Bounty ?

A bug bounty is a cybersecurity program that incentivizes ethical hackers (security researchers) to identify and report vulnerabilities in an organization’s digital assets, such as websites, applications, or networks. Companies or platforms running bug bounty programs offer monetary rewards, recognition, or other perks to individuals who responsibly disclose these security flaws.

How Do Bug Bounty Programs Work?

1. Program Launch

• Companies outline the scope of their bug bounty program, specifying what systems or applications are open for testing.
• Rules, rewards, and submission guidelines are clearly defined.

2. Hacker Participation

• Ethical hackers review the program’s scope and test the target systems for vulnerabilities.
• They use various tools and techniques, such as automated scanners and manual penetration testing, to identify weaknesses.

3. Reporting Vulnerabilities

• Discovered vulnerabilities are reported through a dedicated platform like HackerOne, Bugcrowd, or directly via the company’s website.
• The report typically includes a detailed explanation, proof of concept (PoC), and potential risks associated with the vulnerability.

4. Review and Reward

• The organization verifies the vulnerability, assesses its severity, and rewards the researcher. Rewards can include cash bounties, swag, or even career opportunities.

Types of Bug Bounty Programs

1. Private Programs

• Invitations are sent to a select group of experienced researchers.
• Example: Early-stage startups or organizations testing sensitive systems.

2. Public Programs

• Open to all ethical hackers globally.
• Example: Companies like Google, Microsoft and Facebook have well-known public bug bounty programs.

Benefits of Bug Bounty Programs

For Organizations

• Enhanced Security: Regular testing identifies vulnerabilities before malicious actors can exploit them.
• Cost-Effective: Bug bounties are cheaper than hiring full-time security teams or dealing with post-breach damages.
• Community Engagement: Builds trust with the cybersecurity community and end-users.

For Ethical Hackers

• Monetary Rewards: Successful submissions can lead to lucrative payouts.
• Skill Development: Gaining hands-on experience with real-world systems.
• Recognition: Earning a spot on the company’s Hall of Fame or being publicly acknowledged.

Popular Bug Bounty Platforms

1. HackerOne

• One of the largest platforms with programs from companies like GitHub, PayPal, and Twitter.

2. Bugcrowd

• Offers both private and public programs with a focus on scalable solutions.

3. Synack

• Combines AI-based vulnerability scanning with manual testing by vetted researchers.

Top 15 Tools You Must Know for Bug Bounty Hunting

Bug bounty hunting demands a highly selective toolkit to identify vulnerabilities effectively. Here’s a list of the top 15 tools, selected for their utility and popularity among bug bounty hunters.

1. Nuclei (https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei)

Nuclei specializes in vulnerability scanning using customizable YAML templates. It allows bug hunters to automate reconnaissance and exploit detection & verification efficiently.

Features of Nuclei:

• Simple YAML format for creating and customizing vulnerability templates.
• Contributed by thousands of security professionals to tackle trending vulnerabilities.
• Reduce false positives by simulating real-world steps to verify a vulnerability.
• Ultra-fast parallel scan processing and request clustering.
• Integrate into CI/CD pipelines for vulnerability detection and regression testing.
• Supports multiple protocols like TCP, DNS, HTTP, SSL, WHOIS JavaScript, Code and more.
• Integrate with Jira, Splunk, GitHub, Elastic, GitLab.

2. Jaeles (https://github.com/jaeles-project/jaeles)

Jaeles is a highly configurable framework designed for automated scanning. It leverages YAML-based configuration for detecting various web application vulnerabilities.

Features:

Template-Driven System:

• Uses YAML-based templates for creating and running security test cases.
• Templates can be customized and shared for specific scenarios.

• Automated Testing:

• Includes pre-defined payloads for common vulnerabilities like SQL Injection, XSS, and SSRF.
• Automates reconnaissance and exploits, reducing manual effort.

• Integration-Friendly:

• Integrates with tools like Burp Suite, Nuclei, and FFUF.
• Supports CI/CD pipeline integration for continuous testing.

• Flexible Execution:

• Offers interactive mode for single tests and batch mode for multiple targets.
• Accepts input from URLs, IP lists, or APIs for versatile testing.

• Comprehensive Reporting:

• Generates detailed reports for vulnerabilities.
• Supports output in JSON, CSV, and other customizable formats.

• Performance-Oriented:

• Enables concurrent scanning for faster processing.
• Optimized to use system resources efficiently.

• Open Source with Community Support:

• Freely available and regularly updated by the community.
• Extensive documentation and an active user base for assistance.

• Use Cases:

• Web application vulnerability testing (e.g., SQLi, XSS).
• API security checks for configuration and logic flaws.
• Automation of reconnaissance for bug bounty hunting.

3. FFUF (Fuzz Faster U Fool)

A fast web fuzzer written in Go, FFUF is one of the latest and by far the fastest fuzzing open source tool out there. Its speed and flexibility make it indispensable. designed to help in quickly discovering potential vulnerabilities in web applications by performing brute force attacks on various parts of a web application.

FFUF allows you to send a large number of HTTP requests with various parameters, and it can help to identify hidden content, sensitive files, directories, and various other interesting things on a web server. The tool is versatile and can be used for a variety of purposes. Some of its use cases are:

• Fuzzing using various HTTP methods.
• General Directory discovery with option to fuzz at any place in the URL.
• VHOST discovery without DNS Records

4. SQLMap (https://github.com/sqlmapproject/sqlmap)

SQLMap is the go-to tool for automating SQL injection attacks and database enumeration. It is highly customizable, catering to complex scenarios.

SQLmap is an open-source penetration testing tool designed to automate the process of detecting and exploiting SQL injection vulnerabilities in web applications. Written in Python, SQLmap is widely regarded as one of the most powerful tools in the cybersecurity field for database-related security assessments. It supports various database management systems such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, MSSQL, and SQLite, among others. With its user-friendly command-line interface and advanced features, SQLmap is a go-to tool for security professionals and ethical hackers.

Benefits of SQLmap:

1. Automated SQL Injection Detection: SQLmap simplifies vulnerability detection by automating the identification of SQL injection flaws, saving time and effort for testers.
2. Wide Database Compatibility: It supports numerous database management systems, making it suitable for testing a variety of environments.
3. Multiple SQL Injection Techniques: The tool can detect and exploit various injection techniques such as boolean-based, time-based, UNION-based, error-based, and out-of-band injection.
4. Database Enumeration: SQLmap can extract detailed information from databases, such as tables, columns, data, user privileges, and database structure.
5. Customizable Exploitation: It provides options to customize payloads, bypass web application firewalls (WAFs), and test complex scenarios, offering flexibility in exploitation.
6. Data Extraction: Users can retrieve sensitive information like credentials, personal data, and configurations from vulnerable databases with ease.
7. Database Takeover Capabilities: Advanced features allow testers to take control of databases by leveraging techniques like database user password cracking and file system access.
8. Integration with Workflows: SQLmap is scriptable and can be easily integrated into larger penetration testing frameworks for streamlined operations.
9. Free and Open Source: Being open source, it’s accessible to everyone and continuously improved by the community, ensuring up-to-date functionality.

SQLmap is an essential tool for penetration testers, helping to identify and mitigate database vulnerabilities effectively, thereby strengthening the overall security posture of web applications.

5. GAU (Get All URLs)

This tool fetches known URLs for a domain from sources like AlienVault’s Open Threat Exchange, the Wayback Machine, Common Crawl, and URLScan. By collecting historical and publicly available URLs associated with a target domain, GAU helps bug bounty hunters identify large attack surfaces or hidden endpoints.

6. BurpSuite

Burp Suite is a comprehensive platform for web application security testing. Burp Suite is a widely used tool for security testing. It works as a proxy server, sitting between your web browser and the web server, so you can see and modify all the web traffic being sent and received when using a web application. Burp Suite helps intercept HTTP requests from your browser, making it useful for analyzing and testing web application behavior. It goes beyond the user interface, allowing deeper and more technical testing. Burp Suite also acts as a vulnerability scanner and includes features like a proxy for traffic interception, an intruder for custom attacks, a scanner for finding vulnerabilities, and a decoder for analyzing data.

• Proxy: The proxy feature lets you intercept and view the requests and responses between your browser and the website.
• Intruder: The intruder feature allows you to launch attacks on a website, like dictionary attacks or brute-force attacks, to test its security.
• Scanner: The scanner helps you check a website for vulnerabilities and security issues.
• Decoder: The decoder feature lets you encode or decode data, such as decoding a URL to make it readable.

7. Amass (https://github.com/owasp-amass/amass)

Amass is a free and powerful tool for gathering information about networks and mapping them out. It’s widely used by security experts to discover assets and understand the structure of a target organization’s network.

How Amass Works:

• DNS Enumeration: Amass collects data about a target’s domain name system by querying DNS servers.
• Search Engine Scraping: It gathers information from search engines, like details about websites, social media accounts, and other online platforms connected to the target.
• Web Crawling: Amass scans web pages to find potential vulnerabilities or entry points.
• Reverse IP Lookups: It checks which other domains are hosted on the same IP as the target, potentially revealing additional targets.

Once the data is collected, Amass organizes it into a graph, making it easier to see the network structure and identify weak points.

What You Can Do with Amass:

• Find subdomains.
• Discover open ports.
• Map out how a network is connected.

Amass is flexible and lets you customize settings to fit your specific needs, making it a great tool for network reconnaissance and security research.

8. Nmap (https://github.com/nmap/nmap)

Nmap (Network Mapper) is a free and open-source tool used for network discovery and security auditing. It helps identify devices, services, and vulnerabilities on a network. Security professionals, network administrators, and ethical hackers use Nmap to map out networks, scan for open ports, detect running services, and identify potential security weaknesses.

Nmap works by sending packets to a target and analyzing the responses to gather information about the network, including which devices are active, what ports are open, and what software or services are running.

9. DirSearch (https://github.com/maurosoria/dirsearch)

Dirsearch is a simple yet powerful open-source tool used for directory and file brute-forcing on web servers. It helps bug hunters, find hidden files, directories, and resources on websites that might not be directly linked or visible. Essentially, it’s designed to discover forgotten or unsecured parts of a website, which can often lead to security vulnerabilities.

Dirsearch works by automatically sending requests to a target website, trying different names for directories and files from a wordlist. These names could include common folders (like “admin,” “backup,” “login”) or other hidden paths that a website might use. If the website responds with a status code indicating the directory or file exists (e.g., 200 OK or 403 Forbidden), Dirsearch logs it.

10. Masscan (https://github.com/robertdavidgraham/masscan)

Known for its speed, Masscan is ideal for large-scale IP scanning, detecting open ports efficiently across broad ranges.

Masscan is a fast and efficient open-source network scanning tool used to discover open ports on large networks. It’s often called “the fastest port scanner” because it can scan millions of IP addresses in just a few minutes. Masscan is commonly used by network administrators, security professionals, and penetration testers to quickly map out a network and find which devices are accessible and which ports are open.

Masscan works by sending a large number of packets (network requests) to a range of IP addresses and listening for responses. It scans for open ports by checking which devices on the network respond to specific requests. The tool uses a highly optimized algorithm to perform scans at lightning speed, even on very large networks.

11. LinkFinder (https://github.com/GerbenJavado/LinkFinder)

LinkFinder is a python script written to discover endpoints and their parameters in JavaScript files. This way penetration testers and bug hunters are able to gather new, hidden endpoints on the websites they are testing. Resulting in new testing ground, possibility containing new vulnerabilities. LinkFinder parses JavaScript files to uncover endpoints, a critical feature for finding unlinked resources in web applications.

12. Arjun (https://github.com/s0md3v/Arjun)

This tool excels at discovering HTTP parameters, helping hunters identify potential injection points on web applications.

The Arjun tool is a lightweight and fast tool designed to find query parameters in URLs on websites and web apps. It can quickly identify parameters in just 10 seconds by making around 20-40 requests to the target domain. Arjun comes with a built-in dictionary containing 10,985 parameter names, which helps it find query parameters more effectively. It works through a command-line interface, making it easy to use on Kali Linux. You can use Arjun to gather information about your target, whether it’s a website or an IP address. The tool also has an interactive console with useful features like command completion and help, making it even more user-friendly.

13. Keye (https://github.com/clirimemini/Keye)

Keye is a reconnaissance tool written in Python that uses SQLite3. You can input a single URL or a list of URLs, and Keye will make requests to those URLs. It checks for changes by comparing the length of the response body. This tool is designed to run at regular intervals, such as daily, to monitor changes over time. When a change is detected, Keye sends a notification to a Slack workspace to alert you.

14. 403Bypasser (https://github.com/yunemse48/403bypasser)

Designed to bypass HTTP 403 restrictions, this tool uses various techniques to help gain access to restricted resources. 403bypasser is a tool designed to help bypass HTTP 403 Forbidden errors when trying to access a website or web application. A 403 error usually occurs when the server blocks access to a specific resource, often due to permissions or security settings. 403bypasser works by using different techniques, such as altering headers or changing request methods, to avoid these blocks and gain access to the restricted content. It’s especially useful for penetration testers or security researchers who need to test the security of websites or web applications and find ways to bypass access restrictions.

15. MassDNS (https://github.com/blechschmidt/massdns)

MassDNS is a high-performance DNS resolver for brute-forcing subdomains, offering speed and reliability in domain enumeration tasks.

MassDNS is a fast and simple DNS resolver designed for people who need to look up large numbers of domain names—millions or even billions. It can resolve over 350,000 domain names per second using public DNS servers, and it works without the need for special setup or configuration. It’s especially useful for tasks that involve handling a huge volume of domain lookups quickly.