Shadowing Practice: How I Made $30,000 Hacking Broken Access Control - Learn English Speaking with Video

I've made over $30 ,000 from a single bug class broken access control on a single bug bounty program

and I know what you're thinking cool you found a bunch

of idols no the money didn't come from spaying low severe reports hoping

that one of them sticks it came from understanding the application better than the people who built it

and understanding how actually authentication works what does the app treat as sensitive action

and which features were built for roles I never was supposed to touch, then chaining them until a low turned into a critical.

In this video, I'm going to show you exactly how live with Real Labs, five bugs that I found and chained them into a full account takeover.

Stick around because the last one is the one that you will actually remember.

And real quick, if you're not familiar with broken access control bugs, it's very simple.

The app builds a wall around who's allowed to do what.

You are a normal user, so you shouldn't be able to read other people's data or hit an app in future or act as another account.

Broken access control is anytime that wall has a gap and that is it.

The whole game is finding those gaps and stacking them until we get a vulnerability that is worth reporting.

Now, I have actually built a lab so you can try it for yourself

and it is completely free over on Hacking Hub.

So everything I'm about to show you, you can practice the second this video ends.

If you want to go deeper, I've got a full broken access control course that breaks down this whole methodology, start to finish, and that link will be pinned in the comments.

All right, let me show you the app that we're hacking on today.

So this is the application that we have.

I know it looks super realistic.

Very proud of this lab that I put together.

You can log in quickly with the test account that you have right here, and you can just log in and it will take us to our application.

You can see we have a ton of different activities that we can do.

We can look at our recent activities, for example.

There are some data here there is records there is patients

there's teams you can see who is on your team

and you have staff

which surprisingly it says access denied we do not have access to do this

because our role as front desk does not have the permission to view this page

and we have users which is probably our different physicians site admins front desk

and so on so we have all of these

and each of these become a place where we want to attack

and find vulnerabilities obviously we have things like our profile and

so on and want to make sure we take a look at it

so this first vulnerability is your basic IDOR

and let me show you really quickly so we're going to go into records

and we're going to do our first encounter

and you can see this is like very basic numerical vulnerability

we can give it an ID for example 43 right here

and it shows us the data for another user

and every time we increment or decrease

that number it shows somebody else's data right this is what everyone thinks of

when it comes down to broken access control and a lot of times

if you're finding vulnerabilities like this one is either a dupe

or usually not a critical unless there is some PIIs or something that is screaming hey this should not be public.

This is where most people stop and just report these

and rack them up for low bounties

but don't worry we're going to come back to all these findings

that we're going to look at this video

and show you how we chain it but this is our first one super easy super simple you should already know this.

Now let's look at the next part of this this is the patient

if we click here and we do a search we can see

that it is sending a search query with whatever we put in here

so if I put in the word test for example

and somebody has the word test in it it will come

up my favorite thing to do here is just doing a single letter

so like a so everyone

that has the letter a in their name it will show up it's most common

and it works

but here's what a lot of people don't think about you will see things like clinic id

and most people are here to quickly maybe make it into a two you can see

that it's showing all of them and sometimes it may not actually work

but my favorite thing here is to do either a zero to see

if it does anything or just entirely removing that and by doing

so you can see that it shows everybody or every other clinics users

and all their different data births and email address and things like that

and it's one of the most common ways of finding vulnerabilities

where this is an eye door where I could see the data for a specific clinic

that is not mine which is seeing everybody's data think of this as

if you're doing an API call

and it's doing something like API v1 slash user slash ID you take

that id and either put that leading slash or do without it

and it leaks every user on that website sometimes you would do some bypasses there

so if there's an nginx rule for example

that just kind of stops it from happening you can do a percent 2f

and things like that that actually bypass it i have a whole video on

that i'll link it down below go watch on the channel

but that's just one of the other ones to look for

and this was another one that i looked at

because it just gave me every user's data on there

that i could actually enumerate and use as a part of my chain and later down the road.

So these are a little bit too simple, but I promise it's going to come full circle, but I want to kind of show it off before we put the whole chain together.

But let's go to the next one.

And that is our teams, which is also super interesting.

And let me show you why.

If I quickly click on team right here, this is supposed to allow me to see my own team's data, right?

So if I click on here and go to profile number one, if i go to profile number two number three

and this is number seven actually

so i can maybe do something like normal number three

that doesn't work in my case it allowed me on

that actual bug bounty program to enumerate everybody's data

but the interesting thing isn't the idol

that happens here is looking at what is being shown to

me on this screen again there was no api calls everything

that i was seeing was this it was a really ancient application

that was supposed to be internal but the cool thing was

and i would have probably missed it

and luckily with ai you You'll probably never miss this

if you're having AI actually look at all your data and your request.

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But if you would have right -clicked on this link and you would have scrolled down to the bottom, you will see the data that is being shown to you that is visible on this screen and then some.

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So you can see right here, I have the name right here with a password.

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The password is PWFOX.

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There is an email here.

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There's a password hash.

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The cool thing was on the password hash, it was this auth token and the MFA secret it because

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if I have these two and

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if you can find a way to use this auth token

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and bypass the MFA then I can easily just take over an account

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and become an admin and that's exactly what I did and

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that is why this is so important for us

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because now we only know everyone's user IDs now we know everyone's email addresses we found the vulnerability

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that I could look at someone else's profile and

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if I have the user ID I can go to

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that user ID pull their password hash and maybe crack it

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and then use the auth token at some point to see

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if I can authorize myself into that account and

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And that's why chaining vulnerabilities and multiple vulnerabilities together is more important than reporting them together.

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Sure, you can report all those one by one.

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Maybe you get 500 here, 500 there.

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And each of those could be maybe a CVSS 5 or a 6, right?

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And that's $2 ,000.

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If you're finding a critical vulnerability that pays $5 ,000 to $10 ,000 and you put them all together in a bundle,

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and you increase that CVSS score to a 9 or an 8 because of the impact that you have, then you're getting a whole lot of money for the same bucks.

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So let me show you that in action really quick.

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Now let's take a look at the last piece of this puzzle

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and this is one that I wish I could make sense of it

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but I couldn't but let's take a look either way.

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So if we go to users here we can impersonate users

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and if I click right here for example it will give us this access token

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that we can take and we can log in just using this

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but the key thing here was if I go to impersonate user number one

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or this id number one which is the chief of medicine

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which is more than likely the admin in this case it would tell us that this doesn't work.

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So there's a couple of things here Let's first confirm that this functionality works.

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So I'm going to grab this and we're going to put this at the end of the URL, go to another browser, and we're going to put this in there and boom, we're logged in as this doctor,

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but this is the usual ID number two that we're looking at right about over here.

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Let me go back.

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It's this one.

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We like this, but we love it more if we can become the admin, which probably has more functionality.

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So what we want to do is, and this is what I showed you a little bit backwards in the original bug I noticed

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that if I wanted to log in every time I did impersonate this token would change

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so it's kind of impossible to guess how this is being created

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but when I found the vulnerability within teams

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when I would go to a profile and look at the source and at the bottom

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this token existed I thought to myself maybe I could just use this to log in

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and to my surprise Whereas if I actually swap it out and put that code in there,

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it also logged in as that user based on the auth token that was leaked in their user profile.

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Why that made sense and why it worked, I don't know.

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Maybe the developers had a reason to do this, but it ended up working.

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And this was one of the critical bugs, which helped me find more and more vulnerabilities by just unlocking more functionality.

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So the key thing here wasn't just reporting all these bugs one by one.

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I know this was really basic and really simple, but I want to kind of show the thought process of how do you map out an application?

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How do you connect all these different functionalities?

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How do you stop yourself from reporting a bug

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and not just escalating it all the way through to get a critical finding?

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In my case, I package all these into one simple bug and the title was something like IDOR leaks user auth token,

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which then leads to account takeover using impersonation right that's a massive chain

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that shows hey i found these different pieces of the puzzle

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and these pieces of api i put them all together

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and now i have a cvss of eight or nine

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because it can arbitrarily take over any account of its own

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and the cool thing was that

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that endpoint for impersonation was also accessible without being logged in

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so if you had someone's token

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and you were not logged in it wouldn't check to see

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if you're authorized so

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if you had someone's token it was hardcoded it never changed

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you always had a permanent account takeover on this application So that was it.

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But before you go, let me just give you some really good advice, because what I just showed you, as I mentioned earlier, is the basic version.

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First, don't make this your entire game.

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What you just watched is a simple way to find broken access control and chain it.

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It's a tool in your belt, not your entire focal point.

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Only reach for it when it actually fits the company's threat model, because some programs genuinely just don't care about broken access control and you burn hours on bugs they'll never pay for.

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So read the room first.

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Two, the real money is in multi -org.

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This is where it gets painful and that's exactly why it pays.

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Picture a platform where every company it's its own tenant.

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Now you have got to find a way to leak the org ID

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and when it's a UUID instead of a nice clean integer, that's a bug all by itself.

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Then you have to connect a user to that org.

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Then maybe you can leak the address ID to pull every address.

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Every one of those is a separate role that you have to find

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and look you can report them one by one and get paid

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but if you chain them and show

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that you can leak every user's data on that platform in mass

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that bounty is a completely different universe than the individual reports same bugs

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but the chain is what changes

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that number third once you get privest up to an admin

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or someone with more access do not stop there there are

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two things you want to explore one hit all of those newly discovered endpoints and test them for authorization.

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Honestly, this is stupid easy now because you have something like Claude that can map him out for you in minutes.

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But two, this is the important one and it's a little bit controversial.

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Start looking for deeper bugs.

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It's technically out of scope because you were never supposed to have an admin account in the first place.

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But if you're sitting in that admin panel and you see a functionality that smells like RCE, SSRF, or even SQL injection,

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my take is try it and ask for forgiveness later rather than walking away wondering what if.

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Most companies actually appreciate these reports.

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Just don't be too aggressive with it and use your judgment.

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And one last thing, you'll probably notice I mentioned cloud and AI a few times during this video.

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I've been messing with building a custom skill that actually hunts for broken access control bugs for me.

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So drop a comment down below with the word AI maybe

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if you want to see me actually build one out and let it loose on some of these labs.

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If enough of you wanted, then that may be one of the next videos in the future

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but all right that's it i hope you enjoyed this video the course is pinned in the comments down below

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and if you haven't already make sure you hit

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that subscribe button becoming a homie like this video drop a comment

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and i'll see you all in next week's video peace

✨ Recommend Video

158 sentences

Why This Video Is Perfect for Your Speaking Practice

This video isn’t just about hacking—it’s a goldmine for English learners. The speaker uses conversational language, natural pauses, and relatable explanations, making it ideal for practicing the shadowing technique. Whether you’re new to shadowing or refining your skills, the mix of technical terms and casual speech helps you adapt to real-world communication. Plus, the step-by-step storytelling keeps you engaged, so you’ll forget you’re practicing!

Breaking Down Natural Speech Patterns

Let’s look at a few lines that sound like real conversation. First: “I know what you’re thinking—cool, you found a bunch of idols. No, the money didn’t come from spaying low severe reports hoping that one of them sticks.” The pause after “thinking” and the casual “No” mimic how we correct others in daily talk. Next: “Stick around because the last one is the one that you will actually remember.” Phrases like “Stick around” and “actually remember” are common in friendly explanations, showing how to keep a listener hooked. Finally: “This is what everyone thinks of when it comes down to broken access control.” “When it comes down to” is a natural way to simplify a topic, a phrase you can use in any discussion. These lines prove that even technical content can sound conversational—key for fluent speaking.

A Simple Shadowing Routine to Try

Ready to practice? Use the shadowing technique with this video in 3 steps. First, watch a 30-second clip and focus on the speaker’s rhythm and intonation. Then, play the clip again and repeat each sentence immediately after, matching their speed and tone—this is where “shadowspeak” (copying speech like a shadow) works its magic. Finally, record yourself and compare it to the original. Notice if you paused in the right places or stressed the same words. Do this daily, and you’ll start to sound more natural in no time. Remember, the goal isn’t perfection—it’s getting comfortable with how English flows. Try it with the part about IDOR vulnerabilities, and you’ll see how shadowing turns complex dialogue into usable skills!

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	were built · will be pinned · being shown
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	people who built · users which is · mine which is
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've made · have actually built

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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