These bug bounty hunting books come recommended by top bug bounty hunters and hackers.
Most of them cover web applications, other categories are mobile and programming.
It can be challenging to find the time to read these infosec books while having to keep up-to-date.
Put a productivity system in place to prevent yourself from getting overwhelmed. First, combine your infosec news feeds and use Twitter in a better way. Then, consider subscribing to a weekly security newsletter to save precious time.
Remember that nothing can replace getting your hands dirty. Make sure to put the theory you learn into practice. Don’t be afraid to start, we’re all noobs.
Dafydd Stuttard and Marcus Pinto
The Web Application Hacker's Handbook - Finding and Exploiting Security Flaws
Focusing on the areas of web application security where things have changed in recent years, this book covers the critical topic of discovering, exploiting, and preventing web application security flaws.
Excellent book for beginners wanting to find web security vulnerabilities, filled with real-world examples and practical wisdom.
A senior security engineer at Salesforce, introduces three pillars of web application security — recon, offense, and defense. You’ll learn methods for effectively researching and analyzing modern web applications—including those you don’t have direct access to.
All of the basic topics to get you from zero to junior pentester level — covering everything you need to know to start breaking into the web application penetration testing industry or looking for bug bounties.
Michal Zalewski, one of the world's top browser security experts, offers a compelling narrative that explains exactly how browsers work and why they're fundamentally insecure.
Gain practical knowledge of application security and become a skilled bug bounty hunter by exploring a variety of related concepts, techniques, and tools.
This book focuses on real-world campaigns and attacks, exposing you to different initial entry points, exploitation, custom malware, persistence, and lateral movement.
The Red Team Field Manual (RTFM) is a no fluff, but thorough reference guide for Red Team members who routinely find themselves on a mission without Google or the time to scan through a man page.
Using publicly disclosed vulnerabilities, Web Hacking 101 explains common web vulnerabilities and will show you how to start finding vulnerabilities and collecting bounties.
Mendel Cooper
Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide - An in-depth exploration of the art of shell scripting
This free guide serves as a textbook, a manual for self-study, and as a reference and source of knowledge on shell scripting techniques.
Tom Steele, Chris Patten, and Dan Kottmann
Black Hat Go - Go Programming For Hackers and Pentesters
Black Hat Go explores the darker side of the popular Go programming language. This collection of short scripts will help you test your systems, build and automate tools to fit your needs, and improve your offensive security skillset.
Justin Seitz and Tim Arnold
Black Hat Python - Python Programming for Hackers and Pentesters
This book contains code updated for the latest version of Python 3, as well as new techniques that reflect current industry best practices.
William takes you from your very first terminal keystrokes to writing full programs in Bash, the most popular Linux shell (or command line). Along the way you'll learn the timeless skills handed down by generations of experienced, mouse-shunning gurus — file navigation, environment configuration, command chaining, pattern matching with regular expressions, and more.
Mobile security expert David Thiel reveals common iOS coding mistakes that create serious security problems and shows you how to find and fix them.
Bominic Chell, Tyrone Erasmus, Shaun Colley, and Ollie Whitehouse
The Mobile Application Hacker's Handbook
You will learn a proven methodology for approaching mobile application assessments, and the techniques used to prevent, disrupt, and remediate the various types of attacks.
