Bug Bounty Hunting 101: A Comprehensive Guide for Beginners

Everything you need to know About Bug Hunting and Bug Bounty Programs

Karthikeyan Nagaraj
6 min readJul 10, 2024

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Bug bounty hunting is an exciting and rapidly growing field that offers hackers, coders, and security enthusiasts a way to earn money while making the internet a safer place. This guide is designed to introduce you to the world of bug bounty hunting, providing you with the knowledge and tools you need to get started. We’ll cover what bug bounty programs are, who can participate, how to start, how to choose your targets and much more.

What is Bug Bounty?

A bug bounty is a reward offered by organizations to individuals for discovering and reporting software vulnerabilities and bugs. These programs are part of an organization’s vulnerability management strategy, allowing them to find and fix flaws before they can be exploited by malicious hackers.

Key Points:

  • Rewards: Bug bounty programs can offer monetary rewards, recognition, or other incentives.
  • Scope: The scope of these programs varies. Some might only cover certain parts of a website or application, while others might be more comprehensive.
  • Legality: Participating in a bug bounty program ensures you are…

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Karthikeyan Nagaraj

Entrepreneur | Writer | Cyber Security Consultant | AI Researcher