WEB2 RECON PIPELINE

Full asset discovery from nothing to a prioritized URL list ready for hunting.

THE 5-MINUTE RULE

If a target shows nothing interesting after 5 minutes of recon, move on. Don't burn hours on dead surface.

5-minute kill signals:

• All subdomains return 403 or static marketing pages
• No API endpoints visible in URLs
• No JavaScript bundles with interesting endpoint paths
• nuclei returns 0 medium/high findings
• No forms, no authentication, no user data

STANDARD RECON PIPELINE

Pre-Hunt: Always Run First

TARGET="target.com"

# Step 1: Chaos API (ProjectDiscovery — most comprehensive source)
curl -s "https://dns.projectdiscovery.io/dns/$TARGET/subdomains" \
  -H "Authorization: 15e77cfb-2300-426a-b8c3-fbfbf0ab17d4" \
  | jq -r '.[]' > /tmp/subs.txt

echo "[+] Chaos returned $(wc -l < /tmp/subs.txt) subdomains"

# Step 2: subfinder (passive multi-source)
subfinder -d $TARGET -silent | anew /tmp/subs.txt
assetfinder --subs-only $TARGET | anew /tmp/subs.txt

echo "[+] Total subdomains after all sources: $(wc -l < /tmp/subs.txt)"

# Step 3: DNS resolution + live host check
cat /tmp/subs.txt | dnsx -silent | httpx -silent -status-code -title -tech-detect | tee /tmp/live.txt

echo "[+] Live hosts: $(wc -l < /tmp/live.txt)"

# Step 4: URL crawl
cat /tmp/live.txt | awk '{print $1}' | katana -d 3 -jc -kf all -silent | anew /tmp/urls.txt

# Step 5: Historical URLs
echo $TARGET | waybackurls | anew /tmp/urls.txt
gau $TARGET --subs | anew /tmp/urls.txt

echo "[+] Total URLs: $(wc -l < /tmp/urls.txt)"

# Step 6: Nuclei scan
nuclei -l /tmp/live.txt -t ~/nuclei-templates/ -severity critical,high,medium -o /tmp/nuclei.txt

Output to Organized Directory

TARGET="target.com"
RECON_DIR="recon/$TARGET"
mkdir -p $RECON_DIR

# All outputs go here:
/tmp/subs.txt         → $RECON_DIR/subdomains.txt
/tmp/live.txt         → $RECON_DIR/live-hosts.txt
/tmp/urls.txt         → $RECON_DIR/urls.txt
/tmp/nuclei.txt       → $RECON_DIR/nuclei.txt

ATTACK SURFACE TRIAGE

Find Interesting Targets in URL List

# Parameters worth testing
cat /tmp/urls.txt | grep -E "[?&](id|user|file|path|url|redirect|next|src|token|key|api_key)=" | tee /tmp/interesting-params.txt

# API endpoints
cat /tmp/urls.txt | grep -E "/api/|/v1/|/v2/|/v3/|/graphql|/rest/|/gql" | tee /tmp/api-endpoints.txt

# File upload endpoints
cat /tmp/urls.txt | grep -E "upload|file|attachment|document|image|avatar|photo|media" | tee /tmp/uploads.txt

# Admin/internal paths
cat /tmp/urls.txt | grep -E "/admin|/internal|/debug|/test|/staging|/dev|/management|/console" | tee /tmp/admin-paths.txt

# Authentication endpoints
cat /tmp/urls.txt | grep -E "/oauth|/login|/auth|/sso|/saml|/oidc|/callback|/token" | tee /tmp/auth-paths.txt

gf Patterns (Quick Classification)

# Install gf patterns: https://github.com/tomnomnom/gf
cat /tmp/urls.txt | gf xss | tee /tmp/xss-candidates.txt
cat /tmp/urls.txt | gf ssrf | tee /tmp/ssrf-candidates.txt
cat /tmp/urls.txt | gf idor | tee /tmp/idor-candidates.txt
cat /tmp/urls.txt | gf sqli | tee /tmp/sqli-candidates.txt
cat /tmp/urls.txt | gf redirect | tee /tmp/redirect-candidates.txt
cat /tmp/urls.txt | gf lfi | tee /tmp/lfi-candidates.txt
cat /tmp/urls.txt | gf rce | tee /tmp/rce-candidates.txt

JS ANALYSIS

SecretFinder (API keys, tokens in JS bundles)

# Activate venv
source ~/tools/SecretFinder/.venv/bin/activate

# Scan a single JS file
python3 ~/tools/SecretFinder/SecretFinder.py -i "https://target.com/static/js/main.js" -o cli

# Scan all JS URLs found in recon
cat /tmp/urls.txt | grep "\.js$" | head -50 | while read url; do
  echo "=== $url ==="
  python3 ~/tools/SecretFinder/SecretFinder.py -i "$url" -o cli 2>/dev/null
done

deactivate

LinkFinder (Endpoints hidden in JS)

source ~/tools/LinkFinder/.venv/bin/activate

# Single JS file
python3 ~/tools/LinkFinder/linkfinder.py -i "https://target.com/app.js" -o cli

# All pages (crawls JS from HTML)
python3 ~/tools/LinkFinder/linkfinder.py -i "https://target.com" -d -o cli

deactivate

DIRECTORY FUZZING

ffuf — Standard Fuzzing

# Directory discovery on a live host
ffuf -u "https://target.com/FUZZ" \
     -w ~/wordlists/common.txt \
     -mc 200,201,204,301,302,307,401,403 \
     -ac \
     -t 40 \
     -o /tmp/ffuf-dirs.json

# API endpoint discovery
ffuf -u "https://target.com/api/FUZZ" \
     -w ~/wordlists/api-endpoints.txt \
     -mc 200,201,204,301,302 \
     -ac \
     -t 20

# IDOR fuzzing with authenticated request
# Create req.txt with Authorization: Bearer TOKEN
ffuf -request /tmp/req.txt \
     -request-proto https \
     -w <(seq 1 10000) \
     -fc 404 \
     -ac \
     -t 10

TARGET SCORING — GO / NO-GO

Score before spending time. Skip if score < 4.

< 4: Skip 4-5: Only if nothing better available 6-8: Good — spend 1-3 days >= 9: Excellent — spend up to 1 week

Pre-Dive Hard Kill Signals

1. Max bounty < $500 → not worth your time
2. All recent reports are N/A or duplicate → hunters saturated it
3. Scope is only a static marketing page → no attack surface
4. Company < 5 employees with no revenue → won't pay
5. Explicitly excludes your planned bug class in rules

TECH STACK DETECTION (2 min)

# Response headers reveal backend
curl -sI https://target.com | grep -iE "server|x-powered-by|x-aspnet|x-runtime|x-generator"

# Common signals:
# Server: nginx + X-Powered-By: PHP/7.4 → PHP backend
# Server: gunicorn OR X-Powered-By: Express → Python/Node.js
# X-Powered-By: ASP.NET → .NET
# Server: Apache Tomcat → Java
# X-Runtime: Ruby → Ruby on Rails

# Framework from JS bundle paths:
# /_next/static/ → Next.js
# /static/js/main.chunk.js → CRA (React)
# /packs/ → Ruby on Rails + Webpacker
# /__nuxt/ → Nuxt.js (Vue)

Stack → Primary Bug Class Map

CONTINUOUS MONITORING SETUP

Set up once per target. Alerts you before other hunters.

New Subdomain Alerts (daily cron)

#!/bin/bash
TARGET="target.com"
KNOWN="/tmp/$TARGET-subs-known.txt"

subfinder -d $TARGET -silent > /tmp/$TARGET-subs-fresh.txt
curl -s "https://dns.projectdiscovery.io/dns/$TARGET/subdomains" \
  -H "Authorization: 15e77cfb-2300-426a-b8c3-fbfbf0ab17d4" \
  | jq -r '.[]' >> /tmp/$TARGET-subs-fresh.txt

# Diff against known
NEW=$(comm -23 <(sort /tmp/$TARGET-subs-fresh.txt) <(sort $KNOWN 2>/dev/null))

if [ -n "$NEW" ]; then
  echo "NEW SUBDOMAINS: $NEW"
  echo "$NEW" >> $KNOWN
fi

# Schedule: crontab -e → 0 8 * * * /bin/bash ~/monitors/subs-watch.sh

GitHub Commit Watch

#!/bin/bash
REPO="TargetOrg/target-app"
LAST_SHA="/tmp/$REPO-last-sha.txt"

CURRENT=$(curl -s "https://api.github.com/repos/$REPO/commits?per_page=1" | jq -r '.[0].sha')
KNOWN=$(cat $LAST_SHA 2>/dev/null)

if [ "$CURRENT" != "$KNOWN" ]; then
  echo "New commit on $REPO: $CURRENT"
  echo $CURRENT > $LAST_SHA
  # Get changed files
  curl -s "https://api.github.com/repos/$REPO/commits/$CURRENT" \
    | jq -r '.files[].filename' | grep -E "auth|middleware|route|permission|role|admin"
fi

# Schedule: */30 * * * * /bin/bash ~/monitors/github-watch.sh

30-MINUTE RECON PROTOCOL

Minutes 0-5: Read Program Page

Note:
- ALL in-scope assets (every domain listed)
- Out-of-scope list (read carefully — common trap)
- Safe harbor statement
- Impact types accepted (some exclude "low")
- Average bounty amount (signals program generosity)

Minutes 5-15: Asset Discovery

Run the standard pipeline above. Focus on live.txt output.

Minutes 15-25: Surface Map

Run gf patterns and the interesting-params grep above.

Minutes 25-30: Manual Exploration

Open Burp Suite. Browse the app with proxy on:

1. Register an account
2. Perform main user actions (create/read/update/delete resources)
3. Note all API calls in Burp history
4. Look for endpoints not in your URL list

After 30 min: Prioritize

Priority 1: API endpoints with ID parameters → IDOR candidates
Priority 2: File upload features → XSS/RCE candidates
Priority 3: OAuth/SSO flows → auth bypass candidates
Priority 4: Search/filter with user input → SQLi/SSRF/SSTI candidates
Priority 5: Admin/debug endpoints → auth bypass candidates