Bug Bounty

What is Bug Bounty

What is Bug Bounty in Cyber Security? A Beginner’s Guide for Success

What is Bug Bounty in Cyber Security? A Beginner’s Guide Your Friendly Hacker May 21, 2025 6:05 pm No Comments 4 Min Read [wp_ulike] Table of Contents Introduction Cybersecurity is one of the fastest-growing industries in today’s digital world. As organizations increasingly rely on technology, the risk of cyber threats and vulnerabilities has grown substantially. To combat these risks, companies are turning to an innovative and collaborative approach known as bug bounty programs. But what is bug bounty, and why is it gaining so much popularity? In simple terms, a bug bounty is a reward offered by companies or organizations to ethical hackers — also known as security researchers — for discovering and responsibly reporting bugs or security flaws in their applications, websites, or systems. These programs not only help strengthen security but also offer skilled individuals a legal and rewarding way to put their hacking skills to good use. With leading tech giants like Google, Facebook, Apple, and PayPal offering lucrative bounty programs, bug bounty hunting has evolved into a legitimate and often highly profitable career path. Whether you’re a student, a professional cybersecurity enthusiast, or someone curious about ethical hacking, learning what a bug bounty is and how it works is the first step toward making your mark in this exciting field. In this post, we’ll cover: What is bug bounty and how it works Who offers bug bounty programs How you can get started as a beginner Tips, tools, and platforms for success Let’s dive deep into the world of ethical hacking and discover how bug bounties can open up real opportunities for learning, earning, and growing in the cybersecurity space. What is a Bug Bounty? A bug bounty is a financial reward offered by companies to independent security researchers (a.k.a. bug bounty hunters) who find and report vulnerabilities in their systems. These programs allow organizations to fix issues before bad actors can exploit them. Think of it like this:You’re helping someone lock their doors — and getting paid for it. Why Do Companies Offer Bug Bounty Programs? Proactive Security: Fix vulnerabilities before attackers find them. Cost-Effective: Pay only for results, not for full-time security staff. Global Reach: Access thousands of skilled researchers from around the world. Compliance & Trust: Demonstrates commitment to security and user safety. How Much Can You Earn From Bug Bounty? First we understood What is Bug Bounty. Bug bounties range from $50 to $100,000+ depending on: Severity of the vulnerability Scope of the program Company size (Google, Apple, Meta pay more) Some top bounty hunters have earned over $1 million on platforms like HackerOne and Bugcrowd. 🧠 Real-Life Example Google’s Bug Bounty Program has paid over $45 million to security researchers since 2010. The highest single bounty? $161,337 for a Pixel remote code execution bug! Where to Find Bug Bounty Programs? Once You Understood everything about what is Bug Bounty. You can find hundreds of programs on public platforms like: 🌐 HackerOne  🌐 Bugcrowd  🌐 Intigriti  🌐 YesWeHack Also check the Security.txt file or “Security” page of company websites — many host private bounty programs. Tools You Need to Get Started To be a successful bug bounty hunter, you’ll need these: 🧰 Burp Suite (Free and Pro versions) 🧰 Nmap – for scanning open ports 🧰 Amass / Subfinder – for reconnaissance 🧰 OWASP ZAP – for automated scanning 🧰 Kali Linux or Parrot OS – penetration testing OS Best Courses to Learn Bug Bounty in 2025 Here are beginner-friendly online courses specially curated for you to make you understand what is bug bounty to advanced topics such as techniques to earn bug bounties: 💻 Bug Bounty Hunting for Beginners on Udemy 💻 Web Application Penetration Testing by TryHackMe 💻 The Complete Ethical Hacking Bootcamp on Coursera 💻 Practical Ethical Hacking – TCM Security How to Start Bug Bounty Hunting (Step-by-Step)   Learn Basic Cyber Security Begin your journey by understanding the fundamentals of cybersecurity. Start with networking concepts like TCP/IP, DNS, and HTTP/HTTPS protocols to know how the internet functions. Learn how servers and clients communicate, and how websites are structured. Pair this knowledge with Linux basics — since most hacking tools are built for Linux environments — and master command-line operations. Then, dive into the OWASP Top 10 list to familiarize yourself with the most common and critical web vulnerabilities, such as XSS, SQL Injection, and Broken Authentication. This foundation will help you identify and exploit real-world security flaws during your bug bounty journey. Practice on Platforms Before jumping into live programs, refine your skills using legal and beginner-friendly practice labs. Platforms like TryHackMe and Hack The Box offer guided paths for cybersecurity learners, including beginner to advanced rooms on penetration testing and web hacking. PortSwigger Web Security Academy is another free and powerful resource where you can practice real-world scenarios in-browser, including OWASP vulnerabilities, authentication bypasses, and business logic flaws. These environments help you build both confidence and skill in a risk-free, structured way. Next Step involves, understanding what is bug bounty platform. Pick a Bug Bounty Platform First Understand what is Bug Bounty. When you have understood what is Bug Bounty, you can go ahead with the Next steps. When you’re ready to go live, join reputable bug bounty platforms that host programs from companies across the globe. The most popular platforms include: HackerOne – Known for large community support and beginner-friendly programs. Bugcrowd – Offers public and private programs for all skill levels. Intigriti – A fast-growing European platform that offers competitive rewards. These platforms connect you with real-world programs from startups to Fortune 500 companies that pay you for discovering valid security issues. Study Program Scope Every bug bounty program has a defined scope and set of rules. This includes which domains, applications, and types of vulnerabilities are eligible for rewards. Always read and understand the program’s: Scope (in-scope and out-of-scope assets) Testing rules (rate-limiting, user data restrictions) Reward criteria (how payouts are calculated) This ensures you don’t waste time testing unqualified assets and keeps

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Pickle Rick

Pickle Rick | Try Hack Me | CTF Write Up

Pickle Rick | Try Hack Me | CTF Write Up Your Friendly Hacker March 19, 2025 10:26 am No Comments 4 Min Read [wp_ulike] Table of Contents   About the Challenge Pickle Rick CTF Room Link: https://tryhackme.com/room/picklerick We need to help Rick to make his potion and transform him into a human from a pickle by finding three ingredients.Basically, we need to exploit a web server in this Rick and Morty themed challenge.  You can also refer to my Try Hack Me Pickle Rick CTF Video Walkthrough Here. Lets get started with the challenge by deploying the machine Now, open the browser and paste the IP address of the target machine into the browser.By pasting the IP address you will be able to access the web application. Now, we will observe the website and note down anything that you feel is important. Enumeration Well if you don’t know what to look for first, i would recommend to check robots.txt Found a Random Text Looks like we found some random text “Wubbalubbadubdub”. we will try to make a note of the text and save it somewhere for future use. Page Source Lets inspect the page source/ Inspect and see if we find anything important. Woh! Have a look , we just found a username “R1ckRul3s”. Also, i have a feeling that the text wefound earlier could be a password. Login Page So the next thing we need to look for is a login page. Lets see if we find it. Now we will try to enumerate the website by using Nmap,Lets scan using Nmap. We found a couple of open ports. Dirbuster Lets use Dirbuster to find any hidden directories. so, we will try to fill up all the details in dirbuster, go ahead and select the dirbuster wordlist and increase the number of threads for faster search.I will be using the 2.3-medium.txt wordlist from dirbuster. Lets start the Dirbuster and sit back and relax until the tool finds hidden directories. Looks like Dirbuster found the Login page of the Website for us.lets explore the login page. We can now go ahead and try out the Username and the text we found earlier in the username and password field, and click Login. Surprisingly, it turns out that its the right username and password. Command Panel Hey, interestingly we come across a control panel.we will try a few commands to see if it gets executed. We found a text file Sup3rS3cretPickl3Ingred.txt. lets open and see what it has. Commands Disabled I guess the admin has disabled or blacklisted a few commands. But we have to modify out commands as the admin has disabled a few commands. Found the 1st Ingredient Great we found the First ingredient. Lets Paste it as the result. Time to search the 2nd Ingredient Now we need to look for the 2nd Answer. Lets go ahead and open the other file clue.txtWe got a clue to look in the file system. Lets check the home folder. Found the Rick folder lets open the folder ,we found the file for the 2nd ingredient. Found the 2nd Ingredient Lets open it and we found the 2nd Ingredient. Now lets enter the answer in the result section. Now we just have to find the 3rd ingredient.Lets look around if we can look anywhere. The only option we have right now is to look into the Ubuntu Folder. But we need to get privilege escalation to open the folderso lets get the root privilege. Now we got the root status. Looks like we found a 3rd txt.lets go ahead and open it Found the 3rd Ingredient Hey congratulations, we found the 3rd ingredient. Lets paste all the ingredients into the Answer field. Pickle Rick Capture the Flag CTF completed Congratulations. we completed the Capture the Flag challenge successfully. If you have any doubts while solving the Challenge you can watch my Video Here Conclusion Hey Reader, congratulations to you as well on completing this capture the flag challenge.While the Pickle Rick room is a easy challenge, but its a significant feat in completing this CTF challenge.In case you Have not yet tried the challenge. I would like to thank you for reading my Pickle Rick CTF Write- Up. IF you want to try the Try Hack Me CTF, I’ll leave the link down here. Go ahead and try it.Pickle Rick CTF Room Link: https://tryhackme.com/room/picklerick Also You can Learn about Computer Networking Here. Happy Hacking!   [wp_ulike] PrevPrevious PostPortswigger XSS Attack Lab 1 Next PostTesla Internship 2025: Application Process, Tips & RequirementsNext Share it with Friends Share Tweet Share Pinterest Reddit Follow Me X-twitter Instagram Medium Youtube Linkedin Pinterest Github Leave a Reply Cancel Reply Logged in as Your Friendly Hacker. Edit your profile. Log out? Required fields are marked * Message* You May Also Like

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Computer Networking

Computer Networking: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide with Top 5 Books to kick start your Journey

Computer Networking: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide with Top 5 Books to kick start your Journey Your Friendly Hacker March 17, 2025 3:29 pm No Comments 4 Min Read [wp_ulike] Table of Contents   Introduction: In today’s fast based tech savvy world, computer Networking becomes the back bone of this digital age. Computer Networking has become a very important aspect of our day to day life as its used to connect our home devices, its also important because it enables communication across continents within a short span of time. In short, computer networking is involved in everything we do online. In today’s day and age its important to master the concepts of computer networking, whether you are a beginner trying to understand about networks or a professional trying to advance your career in the field of networking. In this article we will learn the basics of computer networking. So, lets get started! What is Computer Networking? The first question that must have popped in your mind is “what is computer networking”. The simplest explanation would be that it’s the interconnection of devices that communicate and share data, resources and information between themselves. The interconnected devices could include computers, servers, laptop, smart phones, printers and other devices connected by wires or wireless connections. Whereas, networks allow the Transfer of data, internet access and enables sharing of resources across multiple devices. Computer Networking is a very important aspect today, from a small home network with a few devices to a vast web of connections that extents to the internet, computer networking is a significant part of modern communication. Understanding how these Devices and the network work is very crucial in today’s digital world. A great understanding of the computer networking can reward you with a successful career in IT, cybersecurity or network administration. Types of Network In computer networking, networks can vary based on size, shape and usage. Some of the most common types of network are as follows: LAN Lan is also known as Local area network. As the name suggests its helps in connecting network devices in a small geographical area like an office, home, school or a campus. Lan is the most commonly used type of Network as its privately owned. WAN Wan is also called as Wide area network. Basically it provides network connections between different geographical locations. With WAN, a VPN or a virtual private network is used to manage the connections between different LAN’s. WAN is used to connect a Head office of a Company with its branch office at another geographical location. MAN Also known as Metropolitan Area Network, it provides networking Possibilities between different locations within a city. For a Secure MAN it needs a secure connection between each and every LAN in the network that is connected to the MAN. Wireless Network Wireless Network : A wireless network allows devices to connect without physical cables. Usually they use radio waves, hence eliminating the need for cables. Wireless networks are widely used is businesses , Home and telecommunications networks.  WiFi is the most common as well as a very popular wireless networking technology, that provides internet access through radio signals. Wifi is also called as Wireless Fidelity.  Each WiFi network has a unique SSID (Service Set Identifier), which acts as its name. SSID’s are Unique to each network. Which allows easy connectivity to the right device. Network Topology Network Topology is the way in which all the physical devices are connected in a network. Basically it defines how Devices like computer , printer, servers, and other devices are connected in a network. Now, lets have a look at the most common network topologies used in computer networking. Bus Topology In a  bus topology, a single network cable is used to connect the network devices. It’s the simplest type of Network topology but it does have a few limitation. As its connected to a single cable there is a higher chance of a signal drop out. Star Topology Each and every network device is connected to a centralized hub  or a switch. Star Topology is the most commonly used Network topology. Mesh Topology As the name suggests, the Devices are connected to each other in the form of a mesh. While it could be a physical mesh or a logical mesh. When each network device connects to every other network device on the network, its called as a physical mesh. OSI Model OSI Model is also called as the Open systems Interconnection Model. Basically this is a model that tells us how Networking protocols of networks and the technologies communicate with each other in a effective way. The OSI Layer standardizes the computing system into seven layers. All the Seven layers have a specific purpose and communicates with the layers present above and below it. The Above image shows the 7 Layers of the OSI Model and compares it with the Layers of the TCP/IP Model Common Protocols The word Protocol means ‘a set of rules’. Its nothing but a set of rules that defines how a data gets transmitted and received between different devices on a network. We will go through some basic protocols. Internet Protocol It is also called as IP, the main function of Internet protocol is routing a packet of data in a network so that it can travel to the desired destination in the network. HTTP/HTTPS The Main purpose of this protocol is to make sure data exchange is possible on the web. HTTP/HTTPS makes sure that communication is carried out between the server and the web browser. While HTTPS provides an extra layer of security when compared to HTTP. HTTPS makes sure the data exchange remains confidential between the user and the website through an encryption like SSL/TLS. FTP FTP is also known as File transfer protocol. As the name suggests, its used to transfer files between a client and a server on a network. SMTP It is also called as Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. The main Purpose of

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How to Download Kali Linux

Kali Linux Download : To Start a successful Career in Cybersecurity

How to Download Kali Linux Your Friendly Hacker March 14, 2025 8:25 am One Comment 4 Min Read [wp_ulike] Table of Contents Introduction Before Learning about how to download kali linux lets get some knowledge about the operating system. Kali Linux is an industry standard operating system that is been used by ethical hackers, penetration testers and cybersecurity professionals from all over the globe. Be it a professional or a beginner kali linux is preferred by them. If you are looking to get into hacking, Cybersecurity or network security, Kali linux is the one stop solution for you. It will provides you with all the range of tools in one powerful, customizable package. From vulnerability Scanning to network sniffing – Everything in one place Tools used to perform brute force attacks and password cracking are also included. It is a tool that every security expert should have. If you  are looking to learn hacking or cybersecurity, try kali linux for free and take your skills to the next level. So, I guess you have already made up your mind and want to learn how to download kali linux. The first step for any aspiring cybersecurity professional or a beginner who wants to learn all the required skills to start penetration testing is to download the Kali Linux OS on their system. In this article, we will guide you through all the procedures in a simple way in order to help you in downloading Kali Linux, setting it up and going through some of its features. Also, in case you are just starting out with linux, we will help you get the best deals and resources for Kali Linux! What is Kali Linux? The first question that might pop up in your mind is what is kali linux? Well Kali linux is the ultimate toolkit for ethical hackers and security professionals. Basically it is an operating system designed for digital forensics, cybersecurity, penetration testing ,network security and ethical hacking Purposes. Kali linux is a debian based linux distribution, also its an open source project that allows the flexibility for users to modify kali linux based on their needs. What Makes Kali Linux Unique? Packed with Security tools The Kali linux OS is packed with more than 600 advanced security tools. some of the examples of security tools in kali linux are: Metasploit, its mainly used for the purpose exploiting vulnerabilities Metasploit – It is mainly used for the purpose exploiting vulnerabilities, you can easily develop and execute exploits using the tool. Nmap – Nmap is a tool used for the purpose of scanning a network, basically its used to identify devices and vulnerabilities present on a network. John The Ripper – Basically its a tool for cracking passwords, you can also use it to test the strength of a password. Wireshark – Wireshark is a tool for analysing a network protocol which helps to capture and analyze network traffic. Live Boot Capability One feature that sets apart kali linux from other operating systems is its live boot capability, which makes it possible to run it from a USB directly or through a virtual machine. Hence, making it possible for professionals to carry the security toolkit where ever they go. Made for Ethical Hacking Unlike other operating systems, Kali linux is designed to test security defence of a system or network. Basically Kali linux os is made so that we can simulate cyberattacks, access vulnerabilities in systems and network and for the purpose of strengthening of security against real world cyber threats. Great Privacy The biggest concern for any security professional or a beginner is to stay secure on the system by being anonymous for their own privacy. This is possible with kali linux as it includes tools like Tor, Proxy Chains and Anonsurf which helps in anonymous browsing and encrypted communications. Open source Kali Linux is an Open source Operating system. Its free to download. you can modify according to your needs and use it without any restrictions for ethical means. The very reason that it is an open source OS makes it accessible for students and professionals alike. Updates The best part about the Kali linux OS is that the developers update the system from time to time, making sure the system is always secure to use and always up to date with the latest cybersecurity trends and tools. Community With a huge number of professionals using Kali Linux OS on a day to day basis making it a vast online community for sharing resources. You will always find a solution if you are stuck in a problem regarding the Kali linux os. It won’t be tough to get tutorials, forums or guides during your learning journey, be it regarding the OS or learning about the tools and its working. How to Download Kali Linux Downloading the Kali Linux operating system is a simple process. I have provided a step by step process, so here’s how you can download kali linux: Step 1: Visit the official website of Kali Linux You can also click on the Link here to visit the official website : www.kali.org Step 2: Click on Download Click on the Download Button on the Home page of the Kali Linux Website. But before that, Just to remind you Kali Linux provides various versions of the OS for different platforms like 32-bit, 64-bit, ARM, etc.. So be sure to download the correct version for your system. In case you don’t know the version you are using. To check your Windows OS version: Click on Start on your Desktop, Click on settings, then select system, finally click on About. Now observe the Os version under Specification for 32- bit or 64- bit Click on Download Step 3: Download the file for Virtual Machines As soon as you Click on the Download button, a bunch of options will pop up for you to select. You can go ahead and select Virtual Machines as going forward we will install the

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