OSINT for Bug Bounty: Complete Guide with Intelligence Security

Reconnaissance is the phase that separates hunters who find critical vulnerabilities from those who report duplicates. Before running a scanner or testing a payload, you need to map the target's complete attack surface. While most hunters stop at subdomains and open ports, OSINT tools let you discover exposed credentials, internal infrastructure leaked through stealer logs, and entry points that other hunters will never find.

Phase 1: Domain Reconnaissance

The first step is mapping all assets associated with the target domain. Use domain reconnaissance tools to discover:

• Subdomains: Each subdomain is a potential entry point. Look for development, staging, admin, and API subdomains
• Email addresses: Corporate emails reveal naming patterns and key employees
• Exposed URLs: Discovered URLs can reveal API endpoints, admin panels, and undocumented routes

With Intelligence Security, you can run a Domain Recon search that returns subdomains, emails, and URLs in a single query, with results that can exceed 100,000 entries.

Phase 2: Breach Intelligence Search

Search the target domain in breach databases to find:

• Employee credentials (username:password) from third-party breaches
• Password patterns used in the organization
• Internal service emails that reveal infrastructure
• Historical data about the target's past breaches

Breach intelligence findings are especially valuable when they reveal patterns: corporate password formats, internal services mentioned in leaked emails, and how frequently employees reuse credentials across multiple platforms.

Phase 3: Stealer Logs Analysis

Stealer logs are a goldmine for bug bounty. When a machine is infected with an infostealer, all browser credentials are captured. This includes:

• Actual visited URLs: Reveals internal endpoints, admin panels, and services not in public DNS
• Valid credentials: URL + username + password for target services
• Session cookies: Authentication tokens that might still be active
• Browser history: Shows what services employees use

In Intelligence Security, search the domain in Stealer Logs Search and Session Cookies to find this data. Each result includes the service URL, username, password (censored in the free tier), and date.

Phase 4: Live Data Intelligence

Use live data intelligence to get a complete view of all records associated with the domain. This includes data from multiple buckets:

• leaks.private: Credential dumps and private data
• leaks.logs: Stealer log records with URLs and credentials
• dns: DNS records, nameservers, and IPs
• pastes: Information published on paste sites
• darknet.tor: Dark web mentions

Phase 5: Target Prioritization

With all gathered information, prioritize your targets:

1. P0 - Critical: Subdomains with accessible admin panels, valid stealer log credentials, active session cookies
2. P1 - High: Development/staging subdomains, undocumented APIs, endpoints with interesting parameters
3. P2 - Medium: Generic subdomains, employee emails, URLs with potential path traversal

Practical Example

Suppose the program scope is *.target.com:

1. Domain Recon finds 5,000 subdomains, 2,000 emails, and 15,000 URLs
2. You filter interesting subdomains: dev.target.com, staging-api.target.com, admin-panel.target.com
3. Stealer logs reveal an employee accessed jenkins.internal.target.com from an infected machine
4. Live data shows credentials in leaks.logs for vpn.target.com
5. You prioritize and begin testing the most promising targets

Best Practices

• Always verify scope before testing any discovered asset
• Document your entire reconnaissance process for the report
• Do not use found credentials to access systems without explicit authorization
• Combine OSINT with technical reconnaissance (port scanning, fingerprinting)
• Report exposed credentials as security findings

Conclusion

OSINT is the differentiator between an average and an elite hunter. Intelligence Security combines domain reconnaissance, breach intelligence, stealer logs, and session cookies in a single platform with over 500 billion indexed records, enabling you to execute the entire reconnaissance workflow described in this guide from a single interface.