RECON Β· HYPOTHESES Β· EVIDENCE Β· REPORTS

Bug Bounty Playbook

Move from program policy and recon to focused testing, minimal impact proof, and reports a triager can reproduce quickly.

The productive loop is policy, mapping, hypotheses, validation, and a report that makes the impact easy to verify.

PHASE 01

Read policy and map assets

Know in-scope hosts, exclusions, safe-harbor terms, rate limits, and disclosure rules before sending traffic.

  • Separate confirmed assets from guesses.
  • Identify roles, money flows, admin paths, and integrations.

PHASE 02

Turn recon into tests

Ask who can access an object, what changes state, and what happens if requests are replayed, reordered, or sent with another role.

  • Use low-volume, target-specific checks.
  • Stop when minimal impact is proven.

PHASE 03

Write for fast reproduction

Give the asset, prerequisites, exact steps, evidence, impact, and a root-cause fix. Do not inflate severity with speculative chains.

  • Include a negative control where useful.
  • State the tested account, time, and environment.

Frequently asked questions

How do I avoid duplicates?

Focus on new functionality, target-specific workflows, and well-validated edge cases instead of broad noisy scanning.