How to Become a Bug Bounty Hunter: One Hacker's 3-Year Path + Roadmap

Step 1—Learn Programming Languages

The most obvious first step, then, was to learn how these people communicated with the machines. This happens via programming languages, and there are quite a few of them—each with their own particularities.

Most open-source projects I was interested in (crypto like Zcash, smart contracts like NEAR, VPNs like Nym, and others) were written in Rust. I learned to hate and love Rust at the same time in the following 3 to 6 months, diving into Rust’s book (The Book!), crates, and production code from the OSS I was using.

rustup doc --book

I wrote my first `hello-world.rs` program, then my first smart contract deployed to a testnet, and, three years later, I still have a lot to learn.

Python was my second language of choice, and I wrote a few scripts to help with my daily activities. It’s also the most-used language in security and much easier to learn once I had a solid basis in programming fundamentals that I acquired while studying Rust.

In the meantime, I migrated from macOS to Ubuntu, then Arch Linux—installing my first distro from the ground up. Bash lessons came naturally in this process, interacting with the command-line interface (CLI), together with an increased knowledge of how operating systems work under the hood.

Step 2—How Everything Works

So, by this point I had already learned a lot, but I needed more. The more I studied, the more I realized how I loved it all and all the doors this knowledge could open to me, now as a technical writer and specialized content creator.

I started thecoding in late 2025, promising to “decode” complex topics and present them digested, in an easy language most people could understand. My free publication (thecoding.substack.com) started earning subscribers, and both my follower count and engagement rate on X (at vinibarbosabr) surged.

This was the evidence I needed that there is demand for high-quality technical content in open-source development, blockchain, and security. So, I doubled down!

Started taking security lessons online (mostly on TryHackMe) and doing capture-the-flag exercises. I learned about other operating systems, networks, data management, offensive and defensive security, and many other interesting things that have only fed my curiosity.

Step 3—Auditing and Bug Bounty Hunting

It was just recently that I finally felt confident in putting all my knowledge into practice and made an account on HackenProof.

Right now, I’m auditing some projects and getting better at this task in particular. Articles from Zakaria Eddafri are helping me a lot to understand the mind of a smart contract auditor—like How to Read Any Smart Contract Project Without Getting Lost and I’m also starting to write some scripts in Python, adapted to my needs.

AI has had an active participation throughout all three steps and, on that, one thing I have to say is that AI must be used properly for optimized learning.

If you are starting in software engineering, security research, bug bounty hunting, or whatever other activity with AI assistance, you should not be using the LLM as your assistant but rather as your teacher and mentor.

You should prompt-engineer it to explain in depth each step, each action, and each code snippet it is suggesting you to make or use. And you should only move to the next step once everything you are doing is crystal clear. Every lesson counts and compounds.

You will have enough time to use the AI purely as an assistant to increase your productivity after you learn everything.

I hope I can soon have my first security report published and approved by one of the projects I’m auditing, and maybe I can get back here with a new article talking about that experience and the new learnings I acquired in the process.

Step 1: Learn to read code

You don't need to be a senior developer, but you do need to read code and understand what it does. Python is the most practical first language for security work, because you'll use it to script requests, automate recon, and write proof-of-concept exploits. JavaScript comes next: it runs every web front end, and its syntax makes Solidity easier to pick up later.

A real project helps the language stick. Zakaria Eddafri's guide takes you from zero Python to building AI agents that hunt bugs, which teaches the language and the security mindset at the same time.

Step 2: Get comfortable with Linux and the command line

Most security tools run on Linux, and many targets do too. Bandit from OverTheWire is the best place to start. It's a beginner-friendly capture-the-flag (CTF) game where each level teaches a command-line skill, from reading files to working with permissions, SSH, and network tools.

Step 3: Understand how the web works

Both tracks depend on knowing what happens between a browser and a server. Learn how HTTP requests and responses work, what cookies, sessions, and headers do, how DNS and TLS fit in, and how REST and GraphQL APIs pass data. The free MDN Web Docs cover all of it.

Step 4: Use AI as a teacher, not a shortcut

As Vini says above, use an LLM to explain every step until it's clear, not to skip the understanding. Triage teams close reports they can't reproduce, and unverified AI-generated findings are the fastest way to lose credibility. Once your fundamentals are solid, AI becomes a real force multiplier, for example, as a multi-agent AI code review pipeline that reviews code alongside you.

Learn the core vulnerability classes

Start with the OWASP Top 10, the standard list of the most critical web application risks. Focus first on the bugs that beginners find most often in real programs: broken access control and IDOR, cross-site scripting (XSS), server-side request forgery (SSRF), SQL injection, authentication bypass, and business logic flaws.

OWASP's Juice Shop and WebGoat let you exploit each class in a deliberately vulnerable app. PicoCTF adds beginner-level challenges; stick to the Web Exploitation category for now. It also pays to learn early how programs judge impact, so read how HackenProof rates findings in its web and mobile vulnerability classification and which issues fall out of scope.

Master Burp Suite with the Web Security Academy

Burp Suite is the main tool of web application testing, and PortSwigger's Web Security Academy is the best place to learn it. Its free interactive labs cover almost every vulnerability class you'll meet in bug bounty programs. If you complete all of them, you'll have the skills of a junior web application penetration tester, and most specialists in the industry recognize the academy's quality.

Practice on vulnerable machines

Keep practicing on realistic targets to build speed and pattern recognition:

• Hack The Box: realistic machines and challenges for practicing offensive security.
• TryHackMe: guided learning paths and virtual labs, the most beginner-friendly option.
• IppSec: video walkthroughs of retired Hack The Box machines, often showing several ways to solve each one.

Learn reconnaissance

On real programs, the hunter who maps the attack surface best usually finds the bug first. Learn to enumerate subdomains, probe live hosts, discover hidden endpoints, and read JavaScript files for API routes and secrets. Tools like subfinder, httpx, and ffuf cover most of this workflow. Only test assets the program lists as in scope.

Read publicly disclosed reports

Disclosed reports show you what real findings look like and how hunters explain impact. Follow the #bugbounty and #bugbountytips hashtags on X, LinkedIn, and Medium. Read rejected and unpaid reports too, so you don't repeat other hunters' mistakes.

Learn Ethereum and the EVM

Start with how the blockchain itself works: accounts, transactions, gas, storage, and how contracts call each other. Mastering Ethereum by Andreas Antonopoulos and Gavin Wood is free on GitHub and covers everything a beginner needs. If you'd rather go straight to the source, the Ethereum developer docs explain the same concepts in shorter chapters.

Learn Solidity

CryptoZombies teaches Solidity basics by having you build a simple game. Once you're comfortable, go through the Solidity documentation, then read real code: the OpenZeppelin Contracts library shows how token standards (ERC-20, ERC-721), access control, and proxies are built in production.

Run your first contracts in Remix IDE, which works in the browser with no setup. Then move to Foundry, the toolkit most auditors use to test contracts and write proof-of-concept exploits.

Not every chain runs on the EVM. Solana and NEAR use Rust, and Sui and Aptos use Move. If you choose Move, see how capabilities leak and authorization fails in Move, how shared objects leak on Sui, and how Move arithmetic loses precision.

Learn the vulnerability classes

Our breakdown of the most common smart contract vulnerabilities walks through the OWASP Smart Contract Top 10, with a real exploit for each class. Study the classic patterns in depth, such as how a reentrancy attack drains a contract and how a flash loan attack turns a small bug into a protocol-wide drain. Then check how programs grade impact in HackenProof's smart contract vulnerability classification.

Use security tools, then verify by hand

Automated tools speed up your review, but they don't replace it:

• Slither: fast static analysis for Solidity.
• Mythril: symbolic execution that explores possible execution paths.
• Echidna and Foundry's fuzzer: property-based fuzzing to break invariants.

Scanners produce many false positives. Confirm every result manually and back it with a working proof of concept before you report it.

Practice with CTFs and vulnerable contracts

• Ethernaut: OpenZeppelin's level-by-level wargame, the classic starting point.
• Damn Vulnerable DeFi: harder challenges built around real DeFi patterns like lending, oracles, and flash loans.
• Not So Smart Contracts: Trail of Bits' collection of vulnerable contracts with explanations.

Study real protocols, audits, and exploits

CTFs teach patterns, but real programs are full DeFi systems. Read the core contracts of protocols that most others build on: Uniswap V2 for automated market makers, Compound for lending, and OpenZeppelin's proxy contracts for upgradeability. Learn basic finance too, because many high-severity bugs are economic logic errors rather than coding mistakes.

Audit reports show how professionals find and explain these bugs. Browse the HackenProof audit portfolio and Hacken's public audits, then study detailed exploit write-ups like the phantom deposit attack on ERC-4626 vaults.

Go deeper: blockchain protocols

Smart contracts aren't the only Web3 target. Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchains run their own node clients, consensus logic, and peer-to-peer networking, usually written in Go, Rust, or C++. A bug at this level can halt a chain, break finality, or let an attacker forge transactions, so critical protocol findings are among the most valuable in bug bounty. This is advanced territory: you'll need to read large systems codebases and understand how consensus works. When you're ready, HackenProof's blockchain protocol vulnerability classification shows how these findings are graded.

Set up your account

Create a free researcher account and follow the hacker dashboard guide to complete your profile. Some programs require identity verification before payout, so it's worth knowing how KYC on HackenProof works before your first reward.

Choose your first programs

Browse the open bug bounty programs and filter by the targets you trained for. For a first program, look for:

• A wide scope. More assets mean more surface to explore and less competition on each one.
• A recent launch. New programs and new releases haven't been picked over yet.
• Clear rules. Read the policy, scope, and out-of-scope list in full before you send a single request.

Web3 hunters can also join crowdsourced audit contests, where every valid finding in a fixed codebase earns a share of the reward pool. Larger ecosystem programs, like the ERC-4337 account abstraction bug bounty or the Sui Security Expansion Program, are worth tracking as your skills grow.

Write reports that get paid

A valid bug can still be closed if the triage team can't reproduce it. Every report needs a clear title, the affected asset, step-by-step reproduction, a working proof of concept, and the real-world impact. HackenProof's guide to crafting a well-readable report covers each field, and the report submission requirements list what triage checks.

To see what a strong finding looks like end to end, read how TrustSec reported a high-severity ERC-4337 vulnerability through the account abstraction program.

Build your reputation

Every valid report earns points that move you up the HackenProof leaderboard, and the points guide explains how they're calculated. A strong track record leads to invitations to private programs, which usually have less competition. Join the HackenProof Discord to ask questions, compare notes with other researchers, and hear about new programs first.

How long does it take to become a bug bounty hunter?

There's no fixed timeline. Someone who already codes can find a first valid bug within months of focused practice, while starting from zero takes longer. Vini spent three years learning programming, Linux, and security before auditing real projects. Consistent practice on live programs matters more than the total hours you spend in courses.

Do I need a degree or certification to start?

No. Bug bounty programs pay for valid findings, not credentials. Certifications can help if you later want a pentesting job, but your reports and leaderboard history are what count on a platform.

Should I start with web applications or Web3?

If you're new to security, start with web applications. The resources are more beginner-friendly, and the skills carry over to Web3 front ends and APIs. If you already write code, especially Solidity, Rust, or Move, the smart contract track can be a faster route to high-value findings.

What happens when a smart contract has a bug?

It depends on who finds it first. An attacker can often drain the funds a contract holds in a single transaction, and stolen crypto is hard to recover once it's bridged or mixed. If a researcher finds it first, they report it through the project's bug bounty program, and the team pauses or upgrades the contract before anyone exploits it. That's why smart contract security relies on researchers looking for bugs after launch, not only on audits before it.

How much do bug bounty hunters earn?

Earnings depend on severity, the program, and your skill. Most rewards for low-severity bugs are modest, while critical findings in Web3 can be worth six figures. The ERC-4337 account abstraction program, for example, offers up to $250,000. HackenProof's monthly bug bounty payout recaps show what researchers are actually earning.

Is bug bounty hunting legal?

Yes, as long as you stay within a program's published scope and rules. That permission is what separates white hat hackers, who test with the owner's consent and report what they find, from black hat hackers, who exploit bugs for personal gain. Grey hat hackers sit in between: they test without permission, often with good intentions, but unauthorized testing can still be a crime in many countries, whatever the intent.

Testing assets outside the scope, accessing user data beyond what you need to prove impact, or disclosing a bug publicly without permission can break program rules and the law. HackenProof's code of conduct and vulnerability disclosure guidelines set out what's allowed.