How to become a top-tier hacker based on CTBB

I'm playing a lot with Claude Code recently, installed the PAI architecture, and I am doing a lot of stuff with it. It's absolutely crazy how worth this is and how powerful. I'm gonna tell you more on that next week on the next Aituweek, but before that, I wanted to try something different. Give him all the CTBB blog posts and ask him to resume all the tips and stuff from all the guests.

I went through all 155 episodes of the Critical Thinking Bug Bounty Podcast and extracted every single piece of advice from top-tier hackers like Sam Curry, Jason Haddix, Mathias Karlsson, NahamSec, and a lot of others.

I wanted to understand what actually matters and what is important to focus on. So it's not my full point of view but a mix of every hacker that was on the pod. And here is an extract of it.

The Mindset Stuff That Actually Matters

Before we get into techniques, there's something the best hackers keep repeating across episodes. It's not about talent. It's about depth.

Sam Curry said something that stuck with me: "Hack things you find fun, and out of curiosity instead of financial motivation." Sounds counterintuitive when you're trying to make money, but hunters who chase bounties often stop. The ones who chase interesting problems find more bugs.

The other thing is depth over breadth. This quote from the podcast explains it pretty well:

"The deeper we dig into each component of an application, the more likely we are to find/create ways to break it."

Medium and high severity bugs often come from surface-level understanding. Criticals come from systemic understanding. If you're finding mediums consistently but can't break into criticals, this is probably why.

gr3pme talked about hacking with purpose: "The ability to hack with a purpose, something they want to actually achieve instead of aimlessly trying to find a vuln." Before starting on a target, ask yourself: "What would make the dev team say 'oh shit'?"

Why You're Not Making Enough Money

If you're finding decent bugs but on programs that pay poorly, the problem isn't your skills. It's your target selection.

Here's what the top hunters actually do:

They leverage regional advantages. gr3pme went from zero to LHE in 9 months, partly by targeting geographically-restricted services. Less competition because fewer hunters have access. Think regional banks, local government apps, stuff that requires local ID verification.

They use what they already know. Target services you already use. You know the user flow. You might have premium access. You understand the business logic. This is a huge advantage most hunters ignore.

They go after main applications. 0xLupin made this clear: "Main apps offer greater impact potential due to extensive functionality and active development cycles." Small programs pay less because they have limited attack surface, smaller security budgets, and are often already picked clean.

They hunt ecosystems. SDKs, browser extensions, mobile apps, legacy environments, staging systems. Even when the main target doesn't have a program, these often do.

Threat Modeling Changes Everything

This is the stuff that separates intermediate hunters from advanced ones.

gr3pme's framework:

1. Document ALL endpoints and features systematically
2. Brainstorm EVERY conceivable security flaw for each component
3. Note weird behaviors and useful gadgets
4. Revisit documented vectors with accumulated context

The key insight is understanding what the company actually values. Different organizations have completely different risk hierarchies. What's critical for one might be low-priority for another. Study their taxonomy.

Sam Curry recommends asking yourself:

• What competitive advantage do I have that others don't?
• Can I access paid application tiers?
• Are features geo-blocked? Can I bypass that?
• Can I enroll in developer or reseller programs?

Technical Stuff: The Bug Classes Worth Mastering

OAuth Attacks

The podcast covered OAuth extensively. Common vectors include CSRF from missing state parameters, redirect URI manipulation when only path is validated, mutable claims attacks, client confusion, and scope upgrade attacks.

The methodology is pretty straightforward:

1. Map the authentication architecture
2. Monitor API endpoints and keys across the ecosystem
3. Track scope assignments and claims throughout flows
4. Note verbose error responses
5. Identify gadgets revealing redirect URIs and scopes

Client-Side Mastery

This is pretty underrated. Rhynorater covered advanced stuff like null origin bypasses with sandboxed iframes, CHIPS cookie partitioning, sandbox inheritance via window.open(), and URL parsing differentials.

Some stuff to look at:

• Download and parse all JS files
• Extract endpoints, parameters, custom headers
• Look for .map files (source maps)
• Enumerate feature flags
• Check Wayback Machine for old versions

DOM-based XSS is huge because SPAs lack traditional server-side reflection. Tokens are often in localStorage/sessionStorage, so DOM XSS frequently leads to account takeover.

Client-side access control bypass is also common. Many SPAs do role checks purely in JavaScript. Match-and-replace if (user.role === 'admin') to always true and you unlock restricted features.

Workflow Optimization

The principle here is simple: eliminate friction in repetitive tasks so you actually perform tests you know you should be running.

Some insights:

• Map single keys to encoding operations (like q = URL encode)
• Use Caido's "Even Better" plugin for auto-decoding -> now possible without plugin
• Right-click DOM elements and "Edit as HTML" to copy exact structures
• Press Enter during ffuf to pause and adjust filters dynamically
• Use JXScout to automatically download, beautify, and save JavaScript

Match & Replace is incredibly powerful. Use it for feature flags (flip isPaid, isSub, isAdmin), dynamic wordlists with placeholders, payload storage, header manipulation, and JS modification.

Note-Taking That Actually Helps

gr3pme shared his template structure:

1. Scope & Credentials
2. Behavior (what the app does, docs, release notes)
3. Tech Stack
4. Brainstorming/Risks (threat model, vectors attempted vs untested)
5. High Signal (critical findings, high-probability vectors)
6. Error Oracles (endpoints revealing system info)
7. Attack Paths + Gadgets
8. Tracker (incomplete, in progress, completed)

The key insight: "Thorough organization enables pattern recognition across testing cycles."

Reporting Efficiency

More time reporting = less time hacking. The podcast covered this well.

Always include video PoCs, embedded in the report. Create templates for recurring vulnerability types. Use AI tools like bbReportFormatter or fabric for generation.

How to Win Live Hacking Events

This was covered in depth. Key takeaways:

Pre-event: Start recon immediately upon invite. Ask yourself what impact would make the dev team say "oh shit." Focus on Tier 0 functionality with lower anticipated interest to minimize dupes.

During: Decide on solo vs collaboration early. Block leaderboards and chat notifications - they interrupt without providing value. Schedule breaks with physical activity.

Core expertise: "Become their extension: Develop such profound understanding of the target that you function as an unofficial development team member."

On-site: Resist the social atmosphere's pull. If lacking leads, pick a small scope section and analyze thoroughly. Talk to triagers to understand impact assessment.

Critical mindset stuff: "Never define your worth as a hacker based on event outcomes. Scope mismatch, downtime, downgrading, and duplication remain largely outside your control."

Going Full-Time

Johan Carlsson shared his 3-month check-in. Key points:

Build a safety net before transitioning - minimum 3 months of expenses. Start with smaller programs for consistent payouts to establish a buffer, then progress to larger opportunities.

What works: structured daily routine, celebrating only confirmed payouts, documenting learnings from both successes and failures.

Challenges: work-life separation ("sometimes a lack of separation as it all blends into one"), cash flow gaps during time off, and maintaining motivation.

Alex Chapman recommends working only ~3 days/week to manage burnout and only pursuing projects that genuinely interest you.

Mental Health and Sustainability

This came up a lot. Key principles:

Don't celebrate findings until official triage/payment. Manage excitement to prevent emotional crashes. Reframe dupes as learning opportunities.

"The right diet, right sleep, and right meal timings will dramatically alter your performance."

Focus on targets that genuinely intrigue you. Natural curiosity sustains effort better than forced work. Establish clear work/rest boundaries. Never equate personal value with bug bounty output.

The underlying message from episode 124: "Earning potential means nothing if it compromises mental health or eliminates the lifestyle benefits that motivated the switch to independent work."

Using AI Effectively

Jason Haddix shared his approach. Different models for different tasks:

• OpenAI for contextual analysis
• Claude for writing code/payloads
• Perplexity for search

Build micro-agents rather than asking one LLM to handle everything. Each agent gets pre-prompting focused on its domain. Examples: web fuzzing agent, WAF bypass agent, automated bypass checker.

For AI-assisted code review: have the AI look specifically at test files to identify security controls, then search for similar functions lacking those controls. This condensed 4-5 hours of manual familiarization into 30-60 minutes.

Summary

After going through all this content, here's what actually separates top-tier hunters:

1. Strategic program selection - The target matters more than your techniques
2. Systematic threat modeling - Map everything before hunting
3. Deep specialization - Master 1-2 domains rather than being mediocre at everything
4. Continuous workflow optimization - Reduce friction in repetitive tasks
5. Mental and financial sustainability - This is a marathon, not a sprint

The quote that summarizes it best: "The deeper we dig into each component of an application, the more likely we are to find/create ways to break it."

Spend time understanding WHY vulnerabilities exist, not just HOW to exploit them. That's what separates hunters who find mediums from hunters who find criticals.

My point of view

Even if this article was mostly written by an AI, it's still interesting as it relies on all the data from the articles written for the podcast.

And all the stuff from there is pretty interesting and true. And after reading and correcting it, I was like, damn, that's true. Most of the stuff from here is quite natural to me now, but for beginners and people asking questions about bug hunting, I think this is still relevant to remember the basics and keep pushing them.

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This article is based on the analysis of all 155 episodes of the Critical Thinking Bug Bounty Podcast (2023-2026) using Claude. Hackers referenced include Sam Curry, Jason Haddix, Mathias Karlsson, gr3pme, NahamSec, Youssef Sammouda, MatanBer, Aaron Costello, Sharon Brizinov, Rhynorater, Shubs, SpaceRaccoon, Johan Carlsson, Alex Chapman, 0xLupin, and others.