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InfoSec Write-ups

A collection of write-ups from the best hackers in the world on topics ranging from bug bounties and CTFs to vulnhub machines, hardware challenges and real life encounters. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for the coolest infosec updates: https://weekly.infosecwriteups.com/

“How I Bank $1k+ a Month Finding Bugs Everyone Ignores”

4 min readSep 17, 2025

Let me paint you a picture. It’s 2 AM. Another hunter in the Discord server pops off about a crazy RCE chain. You sigh, feeling like you’ll never find the big one. Sound familiar?

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I used to feel that way. Then I stopped chasing the hype and started cashing in on the vulnerabilities everyone else was too busy to notice. I’m talking about the boring, unsexy bugs: Information Disclosure.

While everyone is hammering the main application for SQLi, I’m quietly collecting bounties for exposed source code, forgotten developer files, and misconfigured servers. This is my not-so-secret playbook.

The Mindset Shift: Stop Hunting for Vulnerabilities, Start Hunting for Secrets

The goal isn’t to find a vulnerability in the code. The goal is to find the information that leads to a vulnerability. It’s digital reconnaissance. A single leaked API key isn’t a bug; it’s the key to the kingdom.

Real-World Example: The Staging Site That Paid My Rent
I was poking around a fintech company’s assets. Their main app was a fortress. But I found staging.customer.fintech.com. It returned a blank page. Most people would leave. I ran a simple curl command:

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InfoSec Write-ups

Published in InfoSec Write-ups

A collection of write-ups from the best hackers in the world on topics ranging from bug bounties and CTFs to vulnhub machines, hardware challenges and real life encounters. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for the coolest infosec updates: https://weekly.infosecwriteups.com/

Aman Sharma

Written by Aman Sharma

| Data Enthusiast | SQL | Python | Power BI | ML | Exploring Cybersecurity & Bug Bounty | Sharing real-world analytics, dashboards & security insights.

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Hi great blog aman. I didn't know how finding bugs using ffuf tool can be so simpler. I usually avoid and for dirsearch gobuster or burpsuite. This is enlightening. You are bug bounty hunter for bugcrowd or hackerone?

I also just completed oscp…

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Any word lists you can share ?

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Congratulations on systematizing your bug bounty success! Your approach of focusing on less-obvious targets is a brilliant strategy that applies to many fields—finding value where others overlook it. This mindset of deep exploration and recognizing…