I had always read about SQL injection vulnerabilities. They were supposed to be old, simple, and mostly patched. Yet, there they were, consistently topping the OWASP Top 10 list. I was new to bug bounty hunting, armed with more curiosity than skill, and determined to find one for myself.
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This is the story of how patience, good reconnaissance, and a simple time-based payload led to my first successful bug bounty submission.
Despite being decades old, SQL injection (SQLi) remains a critical threat. It’s a vulnerability that allows a tester to interact directly with a website’s database. For an ethical hacker, finding one is a rite of passage. It teaches you how applications think — and how they can be made to think incorrectly.
The key is to approach it not as an attacker, but as a curious investigator.
You can’t test what you can’t see. The first and most crucial step in bug bounty hunting is building a…