Ethical Hacking News
Recently, a forum thread has revealed the tactics of a threat actor who created a tutorial on exploiting vulnerabilities in the wild. The post, titled "Hacking for Profit. Working method," provides a clear, actionable guide to scanning, detecting, assessing, exploiting, and monetizing vulnerabilities. This tutorial offers valuable insight into how novice hackers are being taught to think about vulnerability exploitation.
The forum thread offers a rare glimpse into how underground communities share information about vulnerability exploitation and hacking techniques. It provides a complex process broken down into clear, actionable steps for scanning, detecting, assessing, exploiting, and monetizing vulnerabilities in the wild. Novice hackers are leveraging well-known tools like Nuclei framework to launch attacks, indicating a lack of sophistication among new entrants to the hacking community. The tutorial is divided into "legal" and "illegal" parts, making it valuable for those interested in exploring both sides of vulnerability disclosure and hacking. The post has sparked interest from users seeking private contact, mentorship, and additional guidance, suggesting that it offered more than just information but experience and confidence. The thread reveals how new actors are taught to think, prioritize vulnerabilities, and convert curiosity into participation, making it valuable for threat intelligence purposes. The tutorial serves as a soft recruitment channel for novice hackers, highlighting the accessibility of hacking tools and techniques to new entrants. It also emphasizes the importance of vulnerability disclosure programs, critical vulnerabilities being targeted by novice hackers, and the long tail of old vulnerabilities still exploited today.
In a shocking revelation, a forum thread titled "Hacking for Profit. Working method" has provided a rare glimpse into how underground communities pass information about vulnerability exploitation and hacking techniques in a form of tutorial. The post, written by an actor using the name "Hercules," offers a complex process broken down into clear, actionable steps, covering how to scan, detect, assess, exploit, and monetize vulnerabilities in the wild.
Flare researchers analyzed the original post along with the responses over a period of a few months. The activity around the thread shows that its influence was not limited to the original post. Multiple users thanked "Hercules," asked to connect privately, described themselves as beginners, or said they wanted guidance on how to move from theoretical learning to practical hacking. This response around the thread suggests that "Hercules" did more than describe a method.
The initial post explains how to monetize a vulnerability discovery in the wild. Hercules begins with advice on how to search for newly disclosed vulnerabilities, especially high-impact classes such as remote code execution, authentication bypass, account takeover, IDOR, and data exposure. He then moves to identifying exposed systems, validating whether those systems may be vulnerable, and deciding whether the results should be reported, sold, or exploited.
Three aspects stand out in the threat actor’s tutorial:
The usage of the Nuclei framework by projectdiscovery.io, which is highly popular among offensive security practitioners. This indicates that novice hackers are leveraging well-known tools to launch their attacks.
The understanding of the challenges defenders have when patching newly discovered vulnerabilities. These topics are further discussed in an educational blog by Yakir Kadkoda and Ilay Goldman in the “50 shades of vulnerabilities: Uncovering Flaws in Open-Source Vulnerability Disclosure”.
The tutorial is divided into "legal" and "illegal" parts, meaning that the reader can stop at any stage and decide to move from vulnerability disclosure to hacking. This flexibility makes it a valuable resource for those interested in exploring both sides of the issue.
Underneath the surface of this tutorial lies a much broader issue: the accessibility of hacking tools and techniques to novice hackers. The forum thread has sparked significant interest, with users repeatedly asking for private contact, mentorship, and additional guidance. This response suggests that the post resonated because it offered experience and confidence, not just information.
A sophisticated exploit write-up may attract technical readers, but a simple, motivational workflow can attract a broader audience. It can remain relevant for months because it does not depend on one specific vulnerability, teaching a reusable mindset: monitor new flaws, find exposed systems, validate, monetize, and repeat.
From a threat intelligence perspective, that makes the thread valuable even without unique indicators. It reveals how new actors are taught to think, what vulnerability classes they are encouraged to prioritize, and how experienced forum members convert curiosity into participation.
Furthermore, this tutorial serves as a soft recruitment channel for novice hackers, with "Hercules" repeatedly inviting users to contact him privately.
The post also brings attention to three aspects in a vulnerability program:
Critical and reachable vulnerabilities are highly targeted. Even novice hackers are being trained today that these are high-valued targets.
The long tail of old vulnerabilities also matters. These legacy servers, old Drupal or WordPress sites with 2019 vulnerabilities will also be exploited by novice hackers.
Your paid vulnerability disclosure program matters. If they get paid, they will probably have more motivation to disclose the vulnerability. Even if they sell it on the dark web, once they disclosed the vulnerability, you will probably mitigate the risks.
Beyond "Hercules," the thread demonstrates how cybercrime scales through simplification. "Hercules" takes a complex topic and turns it into a practical business workflow that beginners can understand.
Cybercriminal capability does not grow only through elite malware development or zero-day exploitation. It also grows through accessible tutorials, mentorship, public tooling, and communities that make illegal activity feel achievable.
Related Information:
https://www.ethicalhackingnews.com/articles/Hackers-Are-Exploiting-Vulnerability-Gaps-A-Threat-Actors-Playbook-Revealed-ehn.shtml
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hackers-are-after-the-gaps-in-your-vulnerability-program-heres-their-playbook/
Published: Thu Jun 4 10:19:11 2026 by llama3.2 3B Q4_K_M
