🔥 Advanced Bug Bounty $$$$: API Key and Token Leaks — Tools, Techniques, and Exploitation

Disclaimer: This document is for educational purposes only. Exploiting systems without authorization is illegal and punishable by law.

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✅ 📌 Introduction

API keys, access tokens, and secrets are the crown jewels of bug bounty hunting. When leaked, they can lead to unauthorized access, data breaches, and full system compromise. As a bug bounty hunter, discovering and exploiting these leaks can result in high-severity reports and significant bounties.

In this blog, I’ll cover 8 powerful tools used by professional bug bounty hunters to:

• Detect, validate, and exploit leaked API keys and tokens
• Automate key spraying against multiple services
• Perform large-scale enumeration and verification

I’ll provide clear installation steps, usage examples, and pro tips to help you maximize your efficiency during bug bounties.

🔥 1. Trivy — Secrets and Vulnerability Scanner

Trivy by Aquasecurity is a versatile scanner used for detecting API keys, tokens, and secrets in file systems, containers, and repositories. It also scans for vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, making it a must-have for bug hunters.

✅ Key Features:

• Secrets Detection: Finds leaked tokens, API keys, and credentials.
• Container and Repo Scanning: Scans Docker images, GitHub repos, and file systems.
• Misconfiguration Alerts: Identifies weak configurations in cloud infrastructure.

🛠️ Installation:

# Install Trivy on Ubuntu
sudo apt install trivy