The Tools I Use for Bug Bounty Hunting?
A breakdown of the real tools I use in my bug bounty workflow — why they matter, how I use them, and what beginners often get wrong about tooling.
When it comes to bug bounty, let me just say this — tools aren’t just tools. They’re part of how you think, how you work, and how you spot bugs that most people miss out on. I’ve been into bug hunting since 2018, and over the years, I’ve poked around everything from web apps and microservices to cloud setups and forgotten subdomains. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that the right tool used the right way with the right skills, can be the difference between a basic report and a critical bug that lands you a big payout.
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned as a bug bounty hunter and security analyst is this: it’s not about having a flashy setup or running every tool out there. It’s about having a small, solid toolkit that fits your workflow — tools you actually know how to use, that help you cut through the noise and focus when something feels weird. I see a lot of beginners thinking that using tools will just magically find bugs for them, but that’s not how it works. Tools help — but only if you know what you’re looking for and understand how the bug works and how to trigger them in the first place.
Personally, I like to keep things lean and fast. I use Xubuntu because it’s lightweight and gets out of my way, and I use tmux to keep my sessions tidy but before tmux,I was using Terminator. No bloated distros with loads of tools over 3000 tools like Kali or Parrot for me. I’ve built my toolkit over time—some tools I use every single day, others I’ve written myself in Go or Python for specific tasks. They’re simple, fast, and do exactly what I need. A few are niche, designed for certain recon or exploitation techniques I’ve seen work in the wild.
But honestly, tools alone won’t get you far. What really matters is context — knowing when to use what, and how to read the output. You have to know what kind of bug you’re trying to find. Otherwise, even if your tools show the signs of a vulnerability, you might not realize it what you’re looking at. For example, a scanner might flag something that looks minor — but pair that with a misconfiguration or any payload or a weird behavior in the app, and suddenly you’re looking at a serious escalation path. There: What you’ve missed, you’ve missed to report that minor bug and missed to try to get any further bug by using it. That kind of understanding only comes with experience, mistakes, and time spent on learning.
I’ve learned a lot the hard way, especially in the early days. But over time, I figured out how to spot patterns, how to trust my instincts, and how to dig deeper. And now, with AI and automation evolving fast, there’s more opportunity than ever for bug hunters to level up.
So in this write-up, I’ll break down the tools I use the most in my bug bounty workflow. I’ll share what they do, and why I use them and give you real-world examples of how they helped me find bugs that turned into big bounties, proper disclosures, or even shout-outs from security teams. This isn’t just another tool list — it’s my actual day-to-day kit, tested in real hunts.
Whether you’re just getting into bug bounties or trying to sharpen your skills, this breakdown will give you a peek into how bug hunters think about tools, not just from a technical side, but from a strategic one. Because at the end of the day, it’s not about having every tool — it’s about knowing the right ones and using them like a pro.
1. Burp Suite
Let’s start with the tool that’s probably sitting at the heart of every serious bug bounty workflow: Burp Suite Professional. For me, this is like a Swiss Army knife for web application testing. It’s not just a proxy — it’s a whole ecosystem. I use it to intercept, inspect, and modify HTTP requests on the fly, which is crucial when I’m poking at how an app behaves behind the scenes. The Pro version really steps things up with features like Burp Scanner, intruder enhancements, and extensions from the BApp Store. One thing I love doing is pairing Burp with my custom wordlists or using its Repeater/Intruder modules to brute-force parameters, test for IDORs, SSRF, and bypasses. It’s super powerful when you know what you’re doing, and makes it easy to go from recon to exploitation in one tool.
2. Nmap
Then there’s Nmap, which I mainly use during the initial recon stage, especially when looking at exposed infrastructure or targets beyond just web apps. It helps me figure out what ports are open, what services are running, and what versions they’re using. This is useful for identifying attack surfaces that aren’t immediately obvious — maybe a forgotten admin panel running on a non-standard port or an outdated service just waiting to be poked. Pair it with scripts (nmap -sC -sV) and you’re looking at quick wins like finding default creds, open databases, or even SSL misconfigs.
When it comes to lightweight, super-efficient recon tools, Tomnomnom’s tools are hard to beat. For passive recon, I usually start with waybackurls. It scrapes historical URLs from the Wayback Machine and other sources, which is perfect for digging up deprecated endpoints or parameters that aren’t visible in the current frontend but might still be active in the backend. I’ve found forgotten APIs, old login pages, and even exposed admin routes just by fuzzing those “dusty” endpoints it pulled. Great for finding IDORs, SSRF, or old logic bugs that devs thought they buried.
Then there’s assetfinder, which I run early in my recon phase to discover subdomains quickly. It pulls from multiple passive sources and does the job fast. No need for heavy lifting when I just want a clean list of potential targets. I usually pair it with tools like httpx to check for live hosts and filter down my scope before diving deeper.
And when I need to test input validation, filters, or WAF behaviour, I reach for burl. It’s one of those small utilities that quietly becomes essential. I use it to spin up quick variations of payloads — great for XSS, SQLi, and bypass testing. It’s not a replacement for manual crafting, but it’s a major time-saver when I’m trying to automate my thinking and keep the payload flow going during testing.
All three tools are simple, fast, and do exactly what they’re supposed to, which is why they’ve earned a permanent spot in my recon and testing workflow.
3. Dirb/Dirbuster/Dirsearch
For directory and file brute-forcing, I rotate between Dirb, Dirbuster, and Dirsearch depending on what I’m targeting and how noisy I can afford to be. These tools help uncover hidden or unlinked directories, backup files, staging environments, and forgotten admin panels. I usually lean toward Dirsearch these days because it’s fast, Python-based, and handles extensions really well. This kind of enumeration often leads to real gold—like finding exposed .git folders, old zip backups, or even endpoints that aren't documented but are still live.
4. Sublist3r, Amass, and Aquatone
When it comes to subdomain enumeration, I usually combine Sublist3r, Amass, and Aquatone. Sublist3r is quick and lightweight, great for a fast overview using passive sources. Amass goes much deeper — it pulls from tons of sources, does recursive brute-forcing, and helps find forgotten assets that orgs didn’t decommission properly. Once I’ve got a list of subdomains, I run them through Aquatone to screenshot them all at once. It’s a great visual way to spot interesting targets, like login pages, dev portals, or something out of the ordinary that stands out from the rest.
5. SQLmap
SQLmap is my go-to when I suspect SQL injection, or when I want to confirm something I’ve found manually. It automates the entire process of identifying and exploiting SQLi — whether it’s error-based, blind, or time-based. It even handles WAFs and can dump databases, users, and more if the injection is juicy enough. I always double-check findings manually, but SQLmap saves a ton of time once you know there’s something worth digging into.
6. Gitjacker — Exploiting Exposed Repos Like a Pro
Gitjacker is a fun one. It helps detect and exploit exposed .git directories on web servers. You’d be surprised how often devs accidentally leave .git folders in production. With Gitjacker, I can reconstruct the repo and potentially get access to source code, hardcoded secrets, or internal endpoints. If you ever find an exposed .git and recover the config or HEAD files, you’re in for a good time.
7. Custom-Built Tools — My Secret Sauce
Finally, I’ve built several custom tools that are specifically tailored to the way I like to hunt bugs. These tools aren’t public — they’re more like my personal recon sidekicks, built out of necessity when existing tools just didn’t hit the mark. One of the first ones I made was a simple subdomain filter that cleans up passive recon results and only keeps the live ones. It saves me tons of time during recon because I’m not wasting energy on dead ends. I’ve also built a screenshot sorter that organises output from tools like Aquatone, helping me visually sift through hosts and spot interesting behaviours or technologies fast.
One of my favourite homebrewed tools is an XSS finder I wrote. It tests a bunch of crafted payloads across multiple endpoints automatically. Instead of manually poking every form or parameter, it helps speed up the discovery process by throwing payloads and watching for reflections or script behavior across responses. It’s not a silver bullet, but it gives me a solid head start when testing apps with a ton of input vectors.
I’ve also got a login scanner that targets weak spots in authentication flows. It’s designed to test bypass techniques — think default creds, parameter tampering, alternate HTTP methods, or path manipulation. One time, it even helped uncover a hidden login page during recon. I fuzzed some common admin path patterns, found the hidden portal, and the scanner managed to bypass it using a payload I’d written. I reported it, and while the team later marked it out of scope, they still sent me a bounty because the finding was solid and helped them patch a real issue.
Aside from that, I’ve got a CORS scanner that flags overly permissive configurations — like when Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * shows up in places it definitely shouldn’t. I use it to spot misconfigurations that might open the door to data theft or session hijacking through malicious cross-origin requests. Alongside that, I use a CSRF scanner to catch endpoints that accept state-changing requests without proper token validation. It’s especially useful on older apps or admin panels where security controls haven’t been properly implemented.
I write all of these tools in either Go or Python, depending on what I need — Go for speed and simplicity when performance matters, and Python when I want to quickly prototype or do something more flexible. At the end of the day, custom tooling gives me control. When something’s not quite working or I want to automate a new technique I’ve come up with, building my own scripts lets me move fast and test things exactly how I want. That’s the real beauty of having your own toolkit — it adapts to your style and grows with your experience.
CONCLUSION
Tools alone don’t make a bug bounty hunter, but they absolutely make the hunt more efficient and focused. The real skill comes from knowing how and when to use each tool, how to chain them together, and when to break away from automation and start thinking creatively. Automation helps clear the noise, sure, but the real, high-impact vulnerabilities- the ones that lead to serious payouts-usually show up when you slow down, pay attention to odd behaviour, and think like an attacker.
One of the most important things I’ve learned over the years is to always keep learning. This field moves fast, and there’s always a new technique, bypass, or mindset shift waiting to level up your game. One of the best ways to grow is by studying public POC reports, especially writeups from other experienced hunters. They’re goldmines of methodology and creative thinking. Try to understand not just what they found, but how they found it, how they approached the target, and what chain of thought led them there.
Also, if you’re using a tool, really understand it. Don’t just copy-paste commands or run them because someone on Twitter said it’s cool. Know what the tool is actually doing under the hood. What kind of requests is it sending? What responses is it looking for? What assumptions is it making? When you truly understand how your tools work, you’ll start noticing when something looks off, and that’s where real bugs often hide.
And of course, always respect the program’s scope and rules. It’s tempting to go off-script when you spot something juicy, but pushing outside the scope can get you kicked off a program or worse. Remember: you’re there to help, not to cause harm. Responsible hacking is what earns trust, bounties, and long-term success in this space.
Also, let’s be clear about automation — it’s helpful, but it doesn’t do all the work. You can’t just set a tool loose and expect it to find all the bugs. Sometimes you need to see what the automation is doing. And I don’t mean watching thousands of brute-force requests fly by — what I mean is being aware of how your tools are behaving and stepping in when something feels off. Maybe a scanner missed a misconfiguration because the response looked “normal,” but a human would notice it behaves differently when certain headers are tweaked or when a weird parameter is introduced.
Every tool I’ve mentioned has earned its place in my workflow through real-world results. They’re not just shiny toys — they’ve helped me find vulnerabilities that turned into bounties, shout-outs from security teams, and a deeper understanding of how systems really work. If you’re just getting started or looking to get better, focus on the fundamentals. Master them. Then start twisting them, pushing boundaries, and using tools in ways they weren’t necessarily designed for. That’s where the real magic happens.
Keep learning, stay curious, and most importantly, have fun with it.
Happy Hunting. 🕵️♂️💰
