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🔓 How I Hacked My Own Phone, Found 2 Critical Vulnerabilities, and Cashed In $1,500
A Step-by-Step Guide to Uncovering IDOR Flaws in Mobile Apps (With Real Proof!)
Introduction: When Curiosity Pays Off 💸
Most people use their smartphones for social media, shopping, or streaming. I decided to hack mine.
As a budding ethical hacker, I turned my Android device into a testing lab — and discovered two Insecure Direct Object Reference (IDOR) vulnerabilities in a popular social media app. The result? A $1,500 bounty and a lesson in real-world cybersecurity. Here’s how you can do it too.
What Is IDOR? 🤔
IDOR (Insecure Direct Object Reference) is a vulnerability that lets attackers bypass authorization and access restricted data by manipulating URLs, APIs, or input parameters. Think of it as walking into a bank vault because the lock didn’t check your ID.
Example:
If a URL like https://app.com/profile?user_id=123 lets you view any profile by changing the user_id (without permission checks), that’s IDOR.
