Bug Bounty & Vulnerability Disclosure Program (VDP)
Learn how to legally hack companies, report vulnerabilities responsibly, and build a professional profile on platforms like HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, and private VDPs.
Overview
Bug bounties and Vulnerability Disclosure Programs (VDPs) allow ethical hackers to help organizations find real security issues — and get rewarded for it. But to be successful, you need more than just “knowing XSS”:
- Understanding legal and ethical boundaries.
- Reading program scopes like a lawyer + hacker combined.
- Finding non-obvious issues that triage teams actually accept.
- Writing clear reports that get fixed (and paid), not closed as “informational”.
Who this is for
- Beginners who know basic web security and want to start bug bounty legally.
- Developers / security engineers curious about VDPs and coordinated disclosure.
- Existing hunters who find low impact issues and want to level up.
- Students who want a practical portfolio for internships / jobs.
What you’ll be able to do
- Safely participate in public and private bug bounty programs.
- Read scopes, policies, SLAs, and bounty tables like a professional.
- Use structured recon to find valuable attack surface others miss.
- Write strong reports that stand out to triage teams.
Legal & ethical focus
Bug bounty is not “try hacks on any website you like”. We spend dedicated time on program rules, disclosure policies, and how to avoid overstepping scope. You’ll learn how to protect yourself and the organizations you help.
Curriculum
The goal is to make you comfortable with real-world bug bounty workflow: choosing programs, doing smart recon, finding impactful vulnerabilities, and communicating them clearly to triage teams and security engineers.
Module 1
Introduction to Bug Bounty & VDP
How bug bounty and VDPs work, key players (hunters, triage, program owners), and differences between public bug bounty, private programs, and vulnerability disclosure programs with no monetary rewards.
Module 2
Legal, Scope & Policy
Reading program scope, in-scope vs out-of-scope assets, safe harbor language, prohibited activities, and disclosure rules. We walk through real examples of scopes and show what is safe vs risky behavior for hunters.
Module 3
Account Setup & Hunter Profile
Creating and optimizing hunter profiles on popular platforms. Understanding reputation, signal, and eligibility for private invites. Setting expectations about time, payouts, and learning vs earning balance.
Module 4
Target Selection & Recon Strategy
Choosing the right programs for your skill level and time. Passive vs active recon, subdomain discovery, technology fingerprinting, asset mapping, and building a personal recon checklist to reuse for each target.
Module 5
Hunting Web Vulnerabilities
Practical approach to common but still impactful web issues: IDOR/BOLA, authorization bypass, broken access control, XSS, CSRF, SSRF basics, file upload problems, simple injections, and misconfigurations. Focus is on patterns that repeatedly appear in real programs.
Module 6
Finding “Out-of-the-box” Issues
Moving beyond copy-paste payloads. Looking for trust boundaries, business logic flaws, multi-step flows (signup, payments, account linking), and integration bugs (SSO, OAuth, third-party APIs) that can be high impact but low noise.
Module 7
Proof of Concept & Reporting
How to write reports triage teams love: clear impact, reproduction steps, minimal but effective screenshots, safe PoC payloads, and suggested fixes. We study examples of good vs poor reports and rewrite them together.
Module 8
Managing Duplicates, N/A & Triager Feedback
Handling duplicates, N/A, “informational” responses, and misunderstandings with triage. How to respond politely, clarify impact, and learn from rejected reports without burning out or arguing unprofessionally.
Module 9
Building a Long-Term Bug Bounty Career
Treating bug bounty as a marathon, not a lottery. Tracking your hunts, choosing focus areas (specific tech stacks or industries), avoiding burnout, and using bug bounty work to support job interviews, freelancing, or security consulting opportunities.
Labs & Practice
You learn bug bounty by doing. Labs are designed so that you can practice on safe, legal targets and then transfer the same techniques to real programs.
Recon & Asset Mapping Labs
Guided exercises where you take a sample domain and enumerate subdomains, technologies, and hidden endpoints. You’ll build your own recon notes template to reuse for every new target.
Web Vulnerability Hunt Labs
Intentional vulnerable apps + realistic flows: you’ll identify and exploit issues like IDOR, XSS, CSRF, and misconfigurations, then practice writing clean reports for each finding.
Reporting & Triage Simulation
You submit reports to a simulated “program” and see example responses from triage. The goal is to experience duplicates, clarifications, and accepted vs rejected reports in a safe environment.
Prerequisites
Recommended technical base
- Basic understanding of how websites and HTTP work.
- Comfort with using a browser, developer tools, and a proxy like Burp/ZAP.
- Some familiarity with common web security issues (even at high level).
- Willingness to read docs and program policies carefully.
Mindset & tools
- A laptop that can run a browser, proxy, and light scripts comfortably.
- Patience — many hunts end in “no bug found”, and that’s normal.
- Respect for legal and ethical boundaries at all times.
If you are completely new to web security, we can suggest a short pre-course foundation path before you start active hunting.
Outcomes
Whether your goal is earning bounties, building a portfolio, or improving as a defender, this course gives you a structured way to participate in bug bounty and VDPs without guesswork.
Confident program participation
You’ll know how to pick programs, read scope, and plan your hunting instead of randomly testing every site you see.
Better vulnerability discovery
Your recon and testing will be more targeted, improving the chance of finding real, impactful issues instead of noisy low-value reports.
Professional communication
You’ll be able to communicate clearly with triage and security teams, which is critical for both bug bounty success and cybersecurity careers.
Schedule & Delivery
The program can be run as a focused short course or part of a longer cybersecurity track. Timings may vary with batch and mode.
| Mode | Duration | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Weekend cohort | 3–5 weeks | Live sessions + guided labs, ideal for working professionals or students. |
| Weekday evenings | 3–4 weeks | Short weekday lessons with self-paced practice assignments. |
| Custom / academic batch | Flexible | Tailored for colleges or internal teams, including extra focus on VDP setup. |
Pricing / Engagement Options
Pricing depends on format, batch size, and whether this course is part of a longer learning path (e.g., combined with Web Security, CEH-style, or OSCP prep).
Individual learner
Ideal if you want to start or improve your bug bounty journey with structured guidance and feedback.
Ask for current fee →Security / Dev teams
Training for internal security or development teams to understand how hunters think and how to design or run VDPs effectively.
Get team pricing →Academic / partner track
Integrate bug bounty and VDP awareness into college cybersecurity programs or training academies.
Talk to us →FAQs
Can I start bug bounty with no prior hacking knowledge?
We recommend at least basic web and security understanding. If you’re totally new, we can guide you through a short foundation path first, then move into active bug bounty hunting.
Will I definitely earn money from bug bounties after this?
No course can guarantee payouts. Bug bounty is competitive and depends on your time, focus, and perseverance. Our goal is to give you a realistic, ethical, and effective approach so you don’t waste months guessing.
Do we hunt on real live programs in the course?
We primarily use safe labs, intentionally vulnerable apps, and public documentation examples. For real programs, we teach you how to choose and join them, but all real-world testing must follow each program’s rules.
Is this only about web bugs?
Most examples are web/app focused because that’s where a lot of bounty activity happens, but the methodology — recon, scope reading, reporting — applies to APIs, some mobile and other surface as well.
Ready to start hunting bugs the right way?
Reach out for upcoming batches, detailed syllabus, and guidance on the best learning path for your bug bounty and cybersecurity goals.
Talk to us