Summary
Member-only story I finally got my first bug bounty. And honestly, it feels different when you see that first bounty land in your inbox. It may not have been a huge amount of money, but for me, it represented something much bigger — proof that I could actually find and responsibly disclose a real-world security vulnerability. So, here’s the story of how I found it. I Didn’t Start With HackerOne or Bugcrowd When I started bug hunting, I obviously knew about platforms like HackerOne, Bugcrowd, and YesWeHack. But I deliberately didn’t focus on the public programs listed there. Why? Because many of those programs have a huge number of researchers hunting on them. I’m not saying competition is something to be afraid of — competition is simply part of the bug bounty journey. But as a beginner, I wanted to explore a slightly different path. My recommendation to other beginners would be: Don’t limit yourself to the popular public programs. Look for private programs and less-crowded targets as well. One resource I found useful for discovering potential targets was the Bug Bounty Dorks repository. Of course, always make sure that whatever you test is actually authorized for security testing.