Hacking Mastering HTTP Methods — Your Gateway to Web Vulnerabilities in Bug Bounty 🌐🐞🔍

[dEEpEst]

🛡 Hack Tools Dark Presents: Mastering HTTP Methods — Your Gateway to Web Vulnerabilities in Bug Bounty

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What are HTTP Methods?
They are the commands sent by clients to web servers to perform actions:
- `GET`: retrieve data
- `POST`: create a resource
- `PUT/PATCH`: update/modify existing data
- `DELETE`: remove data

These methods form the core of interaction with APIs and web apps — and are prime targets for security testing.

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️ Shocking Facts:

1. Overuse of PUT/PATCH in APIs leads to critical misconfigurations.
2. Many servers have TRACE enabled, leaking cookies via XST.
3. Some apps accept X-HTTP-Method-Override, bypassing method restrictions.

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Most Abused Methods in Bug Bounty (with Examples):

• GET — meant to be safe but often abused:
  → Used in CSRF on sensitive actions.
  

  curl -X GET "https://target.com/delete-account?id=123"

• POST — dangerous if no auth/CSRF protection:
  → Leads to Mass Assignment, privilege escalation.
  

  curl -X POST -d '{"is_admin":true}' https://target.com/api/register

• PUT/PATCH — rarely protected correctly:
  → Allows overwriting resources or exploiting IDOR.
  

  curl -X PUT -d @malicious.json https://target.com/api/users/42

• DELETE — a gift if misconfigured:
  → Possible to delete any resource via IDOR.
  

  curl -X DELETE https://target.com/api/posts/1

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Best Practices (From Real Bug Bounty Cases):

• Enable CSRF tokens for every state-changing method.
• Enforce strict authorization checks per endpoint.
• Disable TRACE, OPTIONS unless absolutely needed.
• Implement rate limiting on all critical actions.
• Avoid predictable URIs like `/api/users/1`.

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Tools Every Hunter Should Use:

• Burp Suite Pro — intercept, replay, fuzz every method.
• Postman — clean UI to test complex APIs.
• 🛡 OWASP ZAP — automate detection of misused methods.
• curl — fast CLI testing tool.

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Quick Recon: Discover Allowed Methods

curl -I -X OPTIONS https://target.com/admin

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Practical Bug Bounty Methodology

1. Start with `OPTIONS` to list allowed methods.
2. Bypass restrictions using:
   

   POST /endpoint HTTP/1.1
   X-HTTP-Method-Override: DELETE

3. Test for Mass Assignment:
   Inject unexpected fields like `is_admin=true`.
4. Look for IDOR in every method (especially PUT, DELETE).

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Real-World Stats:

• HTTP method misconfig is rising among payment & legacy systems.
• Older web apps and misconfigured proxies often leak critical methods.
• Many APIs skip auth on `PUT` or `PATCH` — jackpot for bounty hunters.

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Pro Tips for Hunters:

• Always test `HEAD`, `TRACE`, `OPTIONS` — they reveal server behavior.
• Exploit method override headers to bypass filters.
• Target endpoints like `/upload`, `/config`, `/admin`, `/debug`.

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Final Thoughts:

• `GET` — can trigger CSRF on unsafe actions.
• `POST` — vulnerable to mass assignment and CSRF.
• `PUT/PATCH` — a goldmine for IDOR and business logic flaws.
• `DELETE` — highly dangerous if improperly authorized.
• Rare methods — often misconfigured and reveal internal logic.

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Join the Discussion:
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— Post created for Hack Tools Dark Community —