🏆 How to Get Your First Bug Bounty Hall of Fame (Yes, Even with Low-Severity Bugs!) 🏆

LinkedIn:- https://www.linkedin.com/in/vansh-rathore-cybersecurity/

Let's be honest: getting your very first Hall of Fame (HoF) acknowledgment in bug bounty can feel like an impossible mountain to climb. You read write-ups about hunters finding zero-click RCEs and massive data breaches, and it is easy to think you need to be an elite, seasoned hacker to get recognized.

But I'm here to tell you a secret: You can achieve your first HoF using simple techniques, and it doesn't matter if the bug is Low or Critical severity.

Here is the exact blueprint on how to secure your first HoF by focusing on the right targets, the right bugs, and the right mindset. 🚀

🎯 1. Ditch the Crowded Platforms (For Now)

When most beginners start, they flock straight to HackerOne, Bugcrowd, or Intigriti. While these platforms are incredible, they are also fiercely competitive. You are going up against thousands of automated scanners and professionals hunting full-time.

The Strategy: Look for Independent VDPs (Vulnerability Disclosure Programs). Many global companies run their own security programs outside of the major platforms. Because there is less competition, these independent programs are the perfect hunting ground for your first HoF. You can find these by looking for security.txt files or searching for "Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure" pages on corporate websites.

📜 2. The Golden Rule: Policy is Everything

Before you fire up Burp Suite, you absolutely must read the program's policy. Your success completely depends on their rules.

• 🛑 If the program says DO NOT test a specific endpoint: Don't do it. You will not get a HoF, and you risk legal trouble.
• ✅ If the program invites responsible reporting for business logic flaws: Game on!

Always test responsibly. Never run automated tools that could cause a Denial of Service. Keep your request counts low and manual. Companies reward researchers who respect their infrastructure.

🕵️‍♂️ 3. Case Study: How I Scored My First HoF on example.com

You don't need a critical SQL injection to get your name on a wall. Companies care about anything that disrupts their business logic. To prove it, let me walk you through exactly how I got my first Hall of Fame.

I was hunting on an independent VDP for a major corporation (example.com). Their policy explicitly stated: Do not perform testing that affects availability or customer service.

I started poking around their main website and found a standard contact form at [https://www.example.com/en/contact-us](https://www.example.com/en/contact-us). It was protected by Google's reCAPTCHA v3 to prevent spam and automated attacks.

The Methodology:

1. I fired up Burp Suite, filled out the mandatory form fields, and intercepted the POST request.
2. I noticed the payload included parameters for captcha_response and captcha_token.
3. I asked myself a simple business logic question: What happens if I manipulate, drop, or send an expired token? Does the backend actually check it?
4. I modified the payload with an invalid token and forwarded the request.

The Bug: 🐛 Instead of rejecting my request with a 403 Forbidden or a CAPTCHA validation error, the server accepted the payload! It returned a 200 OK with a JSON response confirming that backend processing had occurred (it threw standard validation errors for other missing fields). This proved the application was evaluating the form logic before—or completely independently of—strict CAPTCHA verification!

The Secret Sauce (Restraint): 🛑 This is where most beginners mess up. They load the request into Burp Intruder and fire off 10,000 requests to "prove" they can spam the server. Do not do this.

To strictly adhere to example.com's policy against service disruption, I manually tested this bypass exactly 26 times. That was enough empirical evidence to prove the vulnerability was persistent, but disciplined enough to ensure zero risk to their servers.

The Report & Reward: 🏆 I wrote a clean, professional report highlighting the impact: an attacker could bypass their intended rate-limiting and execute automated mass-spam/phishing injections. I also explicitly noted my restrained, 26-request testing methodology.

The security team loved it. They verified the anti-automation evasion, closed it as a valid low-severity bug, and proudly added my name and LinkedIn to their Cybersecurity Hall of Fame!

🎉 Conclusion: Consistency & Discipline Win

Getting that first HoF is all about patience, reading the rules, and looking where others aren't. Stick to independent VDPs, focus on manual business logic testing instead of relying on noisy scanners, and never underestimate the value of a well-reported Low-severity bug like a CAPTCHA bypass.

Keep hunting, test ethically, and your name will be on that Hall of Fame soon enough! 💻✨