📰 Originally published on SecurityElites — the canonical, fully-updated version of this article.
DAY 10 OF 60
BUG BOUNTY MASTERY COURSE
FREE — ALL 60 DAYS
🔴 Day 10 — SSRF Bug Bounty Hunting
Day 60 — Pro Hunter $$$$
🔐 AUTHORISED TARGETS ONLY
All SSRF testing in this guide is performed on authorised targets — DVWA, TryHackMe, HackTheBox, or in-scope bug bounty programmes with explicit written permission. Server-side Request Forgery payloads against cloud metadata endpoints can access sensitive credentials — only test on targets where you have documented authorisation to do so. Never exfiltrate real credentials beyond what is necessary to confirm the vulnerability.
Day 9’s SQL injection reached into the database. SSRF for bug bounty reaches further — it weaponises the server itself, making it fetch internal resources that no external attacker should ever see. Internal admin panels. Redis databases. AWS IAM credentials. The metadata service that holds the keys to an entire cloud infrastructure. SSRF turns the application’s own HTTP client against its network, bypassing every firewall rule designed to protect it. This is why Server-side request Forgery pays Critical. Day 10 teaches you to find it, confirm it, escalate it, and report it at maximum payout.
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After reading Day 10, you will be able to:
Map every SSRF entry point on an application · Confirm basic and blind SSRF using Burp Collaborator and Interactsh · Access cloud metadata endpoints via SSRF on in-scope targets · Apply six SSRF filter bypass techniques · Understand SSRF-to-RCE chaining · Write a Critical SSRF report that pays maximum
~22
min read
📊 QUICK POLL — Day 10
How familiar are you with SSRF going into today?
🟡 Complete Beginner — I’ve heard the acronym but that’s it
🟠 Getting It — I understand the concept but haven’t tested it
🟢 Confident — I’ve found SSRF in labs before
🔵 Already Knew This — Here for the bypass techniques and cloud metadata
✅ Vote recorded.
SSRF is consistently underestimated by beginners and rewarded generously by programmes. The methodology below works from zero.
📋 What You’ll Master in Day 10
- What Is SSRF & Why It Pays Critical
- How SSRF Works — The Server as Your Proxy
- SSRF Entry Points — Where to Look First
- Basic SSRF Testing — Localhost and Internal Services
- Blind SSRF Detection — Interactsh & Burp Collaborator
- Cloud Metadata — AWS, GCP, Azure via SSRF
- SSRF Filter Bypass Techniques
- SSRF to RCE — The Critical Chain
- Writing SSRF Reports That Pay Maximum
- Further Reading
From Day 9’s SQL injection, you know what it means to break out of intended data context and inject commands. SSRF bug bounty hunting extends that principle to the network layer — instead of injecting SQL commands into a query, you inject URLs into a server-side fetch operation. The server dutifully fetches what you tell it to, giving you access to its internal network perspective. That network perspective is worth Critical in almost every cloud-hosted application.
What Is SSRF & Why It Pays Critical
Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) is a vulnerability where an attacker can manipulate a server-side application into making HTTP requests to an unintended location. The application has a feature that fetches remote content — a webhook, an image URL importer, a PDF generator, an API proxy. You control the URL it fetches. Instead of pointing it at a legitimate external resource, you point it at internal infrastructure: http://127.0.0.1/admin, http://redis:6379, or http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/.
SSRF entered the OWASP Top 10 in 2021 as a standalone category (A10:2021) — the first time in OWASP history a single vulnerability class was given its own entry independent of a broader category. This recognition reflects the explosion of SSRF in cloud-hosted applications where every server has access to its own cloud provider’s metadata service. That metadata service contains IAM credentials. IAM credentials can control entire cloud accounts. SSRF is the vulnerability that starts that chain.
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SSRF — BUG BOUNTY PAYOUT GUIDE 2026
BASIC BLIND SSRF Attack
$300–$1,500
OOB callback confirmed, no internal data returned
INTERNAL SERVICE SSRF
$1,500–$8,000
Internal admin, Redis, DB endpoints accessible
CLOUD METADATA / IAM
$5,000–$50,000+
AWS/GCP/Azure IAM credentials retrieved via SSRF
REAL 2026 SSRF PAYOUTS — HACKERONE DISCLOSED
🟢 GitLab — SSRF internal port scan: $1,500
🟡 Shopify — SSRF → internal Redis: $4,250
🔴 Capital One — SSRF → AWS IAM keys: $35,000
🟣 Uber — SSRF → internal services: $8,500
SSRF Bug Bounty Payout Guide 2026 — three impact tiers with real HackerOne disclosed payouts. The key insight: the SSRF itself does not determine the payout — what you can reach via the SSRF does. The Capital One SSRF that exposed AWS IAM credentials led to the largest data breach in AWS history and a $190M fine. In bug bounty scope, the same finding at enterprise scale pays $35,000+.
How SSRF attack Works — The Server as Your Proxy
The vulnerable application has a server-side feature that makes HTTP requests based on user input. A common example: an application that lets users enter a URL to fetch a preview image or metadata. The developer intended users to enter legitimate external URLs. Instead, you enter an internal address — and the server, faithfully executing the request, fetches content from inside its own network and returns it to you.
📖 Read the complete guide on SecurityElites
This article continues with deeper technical detail, screenshots, code samples, and an interactive lab walk-through. Read the full article on SecurityElites →
This article was originally written and published by the SecurityElites team. For more cybersecurity tutorials, ethical hacking guides, and CTF walk-throughs, visit SecurityElites.
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