Misconfigurations That Paid Me Big: How I Exploited Them (And How You Can Stop Me)

Did you know that some of the biggest cybersecurity breaches in history were caused by simple misconfigurations? Misconfigured systems are like unlocked doors in a high-security vault — just waiting for someone to walk in.

As a bug bounty hunter, I’ve found that misconfigurations are often the easiest yet most rewarding vulnerabilities to exploit. From wide-open S3 buckets to overly permissive Kubernetes clusters, these oversights can expose sensitive data, cripple infrastructure, and cost companies millions.

In this article, I’ll take you through real-life cases of misconfigurations I’ve exploited, the tools and techniques I used, and the actionable steps developers can take to lock those doors for good.

Open S3 Buckets: The Treasure Trove

Tools and Techniques

Tools:

• S3Scanner: Quickly checks for publicly accessible S3 buckets.
• awscli: Used for interacting with AWS services and enumerating bucket contents.
• Gitleaks: To find hardcoded keys in leaked repositories or misconfigured files.

Methodology:

• Use subdomain enumeration tools (like Sublist3r or Amass)…