Secrets Hackers Don’t Tell: Recon Techniques That Actually Pay 💰
💰 Secrets Hackers Don’t Tell: Recon Techniques That Actually Pay
You see it in the movies: a hacker slams the keyboard, green text scrolls by, and BAM! They’re in. The entire breach takes 90 seconds.
Let me let you in on the industry’s dirtiest secret: That’s a lie. 🤥
The truth? The most successful, high-payout hackers spend 80% of their time doing one thing — Reconnaissance.
They’re not just typing commands — they’re researching, mapping, documenting, and connecting the digital dots before making a single exploit attempt.
They aren’t always master exploit developers — they’re master information gatherers. They are detectives of the digital world, piecing together the unknown until a clear attack path appears.
Today, we’re going deep into the recon techniques that actually pay — the ones that transform random data into bounties and breakthroughs.
Ready to see how real hackers play the game? Let’s go. 👇
1️⃣ The OSINT Goldmine: Where Free Money Hides 🗺️
OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence) is the backbone of every successful hack. It’s the art of finding secrets hiding in plain sight — public data that companies never thought anyone would piece together.
Every job post, GitHub repo, PDF, social media post, or forgotten subdomain could be your jackpot.
The goal of recon isn’t to find a bug — it’s to find information that leads you to a bug.
🧙♂️ The Google Dork Superpower
Forget basic searches. Hackers bend Google to their will through Google Dorking, revealing hidden files and misconfigured servers.
site:luminaristech.com filetype:pdf intitle:internal -publicBreakdown:
site:→ Focus on a single domain.filetype:→ Target specific document formats.intitle:→ Filter based on document titles.-public→ Exclude obvious public content.
Pro Tip 💡: Check job postings!
If a listing says, “Migrating from AWS Lambda to Google Cloud Anthos,” that’s a free roadmap of their cloud infrastructure. You just learned their current tech stack and future architecture.
2️⃣ Subdomain Enumeration: The Forgotten Doors 🚪
Every organization has dozens — sometimes hundreds — of forgotten subdomains.
Staging servers, QA portals, old marketing microsites… and each could hold a critical vulnerability.
assetfinder --subs-only luminaristech.com | tee subs.txtNow you’ve got a treasure map (subs.txt). Combine it with httprobe to check which ones are live:
cat subs.txt | httprobe > live.txtEvery new subdomain you find expands your potential attack surface — and your bounty opportunities — exponentially.
Pro Tip 💡: Cross-check these with archive.org or waybackurls to find old endpoints that no longer exist on the main site but still expose data.
3️⃣ The SSL Certificate Trick: Peeking Into the Past 📜
Want to find subdomains that don’t even exist anymore? Look at Certificate Transparency Logs.
Whenever a company issues an SSL certificate, it’s publicly logged.
That means even if they delete the subdomain, its historical fingerprint remains.
Use these sites:
crt.sh
Censys
Shodan
You might find something like:
old-dev.luminaristech.com
backup-api.luminaristech.com
That tells you two powerful things:
Their previous infrastructure or software naming conventions.
Clues about dev, CI/CD, or internal tool exposure.
Pair these with DNS history tools like SecurityTrails or DNSDB to see when those subdomains existed and what IPs they resolved to.
4️⃣ Visual Recon & Directory Fuzzing: The Treasure Hunt ⛏️
After finding subdomains, you now need to see what’s behind the doors.
🖼️ A. Visual Filtering
Use EyeWitness or Aquatone to take screenshots of every live subdomain.
You’ll spot juicy targets like:
Old login portals
Jenkins dashboards
Default Apache/Nginx pages
Forgotten WordPress installs
These visuals make it easy to prioritize where to dig deeper.
💾 B. Directory Fuzzing
You’ve got domains — now look for hidden folders and files.
ffuf -w /usr/share/wordlists/dirb/common.txt -u http://staging.luminaristech.com/FUZZCommon paths like /admin, /backup, /uploads, /test, or /config often reveal sensitive info or backups.
⚠️ Finding a
/backup.zipfile is like discovering a chest of gold — credentials, source code, or config leaks are common inside.
5️⃣ GitHub & Code Recon: Leaked Keys Everywhere 🔑
Modern companies rely heavily on GitHub — and developers love to push commits fast.
Sometimes, they accidentally push API keys, access tokens, or internal URLs.
Search GitHub using dorks like:
“luminaristech.com” password
“luminaris” AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEYOr use tools like GitHound, truffleHog, or shhgit to automate the hunt.
Pro Tip 💡: Combine this with email format recon — once you know the company’s email structure, search those email IDs in GitHub commits to trace developer activity and linked repos.
6️⃣ The Human Element: Social Engineering Recon 🗣️
No firewall can stop a careless human.
Social recon involves mapping the people behind the target.
👥 LinkedIn Mining
Look for employees’ job titles, tool mentions, or photos of their workstation setups.
If an engineer posts “Finally deployed our Redis cache on GCP!”, that’s free intel.
✉️ Email Pattern Discovery
Find two emails, and you can predict them all:john.doe@corp.com → first.last@corp.com pattern.
This becomes critical for credential stuffing or phishing simulations.
💬 Bonus: Breach Recon
Use DeHashed, HaveIBeenPwned, or LeakCheck.io to see if employee emails have been exposed in past breaches — a goldmine for password reuse attacks.
7️⃣ Infrastructure Intel: Mapping the Digital Skeleton 🌐
Go deeper than subdomains — map IPs, ASN, and tech stacks.
Use:
Shodan — find open ports, services, cameras, and forgotten servers.
Netlas.io — analyze exposed headers and certificates.
BuiltWith / Wappalyzer — fingerprint web technologies.
Nmap — verify open ports and misconfigured services.
This helps you correlate everything:
“They’re running Nginx on Ubuntu 18.04 with outdated PHP 7.2 and an exposed Jenkins — jackpot.”
🧩 The Biggest Secret: Patience Pays the Bounty ⏳
Recon isn’t a one-time task — it’s a loop.
You find an employee’s name → find their GitHub → find an exposed IP → scan the IP → discover a vulnerable service → exploit it ethically → get paid.
Every small clue compounds into a complete exploit chain.
The best hackers aren’t the fastest — they’re the most patient.
💡 Final Thoughts
Don’t just run tools — think like a detective.
Every piece of data you uncover builds the bigger picture.
The money isn’t in the exploit — it’s in the information that makes that exploit possible.
🚀 Want to Level Up Your Recon Game?
If you want a full, hands-on recon playbook — step-by-step with tools, scripts, wordlists, worksheets and real examples — grab my detailed recon guide for hackers and bug hunters here:
Hackers’ Recon Guide (detailed, practical, downloadable) → https://thehackerslog.gumroad.com/l/hackersreconguide
Check it out for walkthroughs, lab exercises, and everything I use to find high-value targets.
📌 Connect With The Hacker’s Log
If you enjoyed this guide, join our growing ethical hacking community for advanced tutorials, case studies, and recon challenges!
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Happy Hunting — and always, hack ethically. ⚔️