Bug bounty hunting in 2025 has become a wild mix of flashy recon tools, infinite browser tabs, and people posting $20K P1 RCE on Login Page writeups that make you question your entire existence. But here’s the truth no one tweets about: recon alone won’t carry you. In this write-up, I’m sharing what I learned the hard way — that understanding the app beats out running 10 tools overnight. Let’s cut the noise and get real about what actually helped me grow as a bug hunter.

Name’s Harsh — aka cyberhrsh. I break stuff on the internet (legally, unless Company ghosting me counts as a crime). I specialize in logic bugs — the kind where you poke something with a dumb idea… and suddenly you’re inside someone’s account. Or their wallet. Or their therapist’s notes (true story, NDA tho).

I’m not a recon machine. I don’t spend 8 hours watching gau spit out 9000 URLs just to realize 8500 of them are robots.txt. If you vibe with that, you’re gonna like this post.

This isn’t a guide. It’s a reality check.

Let’s rewind.

It’s Nov 2024. I’m “serious” about bug hunting. I’ve got the tools, the Discord tags, and a Notion doc titled “$2K Bugs Incoming”.

The plan? Run Subfinder, Amass, gau, waybackurls, httpx, ffuf, katana, and maybe even shuffle DNS until the server cries.

I thought recon was hacking.

I even had a tmux window showing a cool recon dashboard like:
[+] Discovered 2,134 subdomains in 17.04 seconds
“WOW. THIS IS IT.”

No bro. That was just foreplay.

Here’s the plot twist.

Despite all those tools, all those wordlists, all those “juicy subdomains” — I had zero valid bugs to show. Not even a duplicate. Just screenshots of 403 pages and a /dev folder with one HTML file that said "test lol".

And then I did something wild.

I stopped automating.
I opened the site in a browser.
I clicked things.
I signed up. Reset my password. Looked at what the app actually did.

And boom.
Within a week, I had my first triaged bug — not from recon, but from understanding.

Look, recon is cool. It makes you feel like Batman with a terminal.

But the truth is, most impactful bugs aren’t hiding behind some test-vault-qa-staging4.internal.blabla.io.

They’re sitting right there on the main app, sipping coffee, waiting for someone to click the “Change Email” button and wonder,
“What if I change it to someone else’s email?”

Recon can’t ask that question.

Only curiosity + logic can.

When I stopped treating bug hunting like digital mining and started treating it like problem-solving, things clicked.

• Instead of brute-forcing URLs, I asked: “What’s the business logic here?”
• Instead of fuzzing 500 parameters, I asked: “Which 3 are actually sensitive?”
• Instead of chasing deep recon, I watched how the app handled users.

That’s when I found:

• Account takeover without verifying email
• Token issues in GraphQL
• Shopping cart abuse through logic skips
• Pre-hijack scenarios with zero interaction

None of these came from recon. They came from slowing down and using brain > Burp.

You know what recon doesn’t prepare you for?

• The anxiety of waiting 27 days for a triage update
• Getting a “Won’t Fix” for an actual working bug
• Debugging your PoC like it’s an OSCP exam
• The dopamine crash after a duplicate
• Forgetting what day it is because your tabs say POST /api/v1/register

But that’s what real bug hunting looks like.

Not cool dashboards.
Not 0-day flexes.
Just persistence, curiosity, and lots of “wait… what if?”

Recon is a tool, not a religion.

It should support your thought process, not replace it.

If you’re spending 90% of your time finding hosts and 10% thinking about how they work — flip that.

Some of my best bugs came from:

• Clicking around like a normal user
• Testing weird input flows
• Assuming devs make mistakes (they do. they really do.)
• Asking dumb questions… and following through

Forget recon glory. Aim for bug clarity.

So here’s my take:

Recon is like Tinder. It helps you discover new options.
But if you never talk, observe, or understand what you’re dealing with — you’re not going anywhere.

This year taught me that mindset beats methodology.

When I shifted from “find everything” to “understand something,” things finally started to click.

So if you’ve been stuck in recon loops, constantly scanning but rarely reporting — maybe it’s time to step back and ask:

What am I really looking for?

Because most of the time, bugs aren’t hiding in your recon results.
They’re hiding in plain sight — inside the app, waiting for someone curious enough to poke the right edge.

This writeup isn’t some secret recipe. It’s just what worked for me — and maybe, if you’re feeling stuck, it might work for you too.

A perspective from someone still learning, still messing up, and still showing up.

Signing off,
cyberhrsh

🚀 Offering Free 1:1 Mentorship on Cybersecurity & Bug Hunting!
Stuck somewhere? Just starting out in cyber? Need guidance, feedback, or just want to chat?
I’m also learning every day, and that’s why I’m offering free mentoring sessions — to grow together.

📅 Book a session here on Topmate: https://topmate.io/cyberhrsh
👨‍💻 Let’s connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harshh-kothari