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He is only 18 years old but his bug bounty hunting skills are on point. On March 10, Mhamed Kchikech announced on his Twitter account that he made his first five-digit bounty, detecting a bug for American online payments system PayPal.
«I just achieved one of my 2020 goals», cheered Mhamed, who currently studies cyber security at Morocco’s first coding school «1337». The rising bug bounty hunter told Yabiladi about his latest hunt.
«This is the biggest bug bounty I have managed to detect», he proudly told Yabiladi on Friday. Mhamed was one of the many bug bounty hunters on the internet who applied to the offer launched by PayPal.
Yay, I was awarded a 10,500$ bounty on @Hacker0x01 @PayPal
That's my very first 5 digits bounty, and I just achieved one of my 2020 goals ??
Special thanks to my school @1337FIL and all the mates who helped me reach this#bug #bounty #BugBounty #PayPal pic.twitter.com/AD9nRjqCX5— Mhamed Kchikech (@mhamed_kchikech) March 10, 2020
«They ask the public to find a bug and report it to them, many big companies do that and everyone has a chance to apply and win», he explained.
It took Mhamed around two weeks to put his finger on PayPal’s bug, securing a 10,500$ bounty, the biggest amount he has ever won. «The company pays bug bounty hunters based on the impact of the bug and how risky it is», he reported, adding that «hunters are most of the time given a scope that they have to concentrate on to find these bugs».
Bug hunting as a hobby
But that was a piece of cake for Mhamed, who has been on the hunt for bugs for two years. «I started bug hunting two years ago and I enjoy it», he said.
«During these two years, I managed to detect several bugs for some of the biggest companies out there», he told Yabiladi. «For PayPal only, I detected between 25 and 30 bugs, including the recent one», he added.
Facebook (2 bugs), Microsoft (2), Sony (1) and Spotify (1), in addition to other companies, have also benefited from the skills of the El Hajeb-native’s bug hunting skills.
In addition to his bug hunting activities, Mhamed is the president of his school’s cyber security club. Through this club, Mhamed and other classmates detect bugs and compete with other schools in Morocco and abroad.
«Our cyber security club is ranked first in Morocco and 60th internationally», he told Yabiladi. «We love this and we try to better our skills in the future», said Mhamed, ruling out the idea of setting up a bug hunting startup in the near future.
While enjoying the process, Mhamed plans to detect more bugs in the future, boost his bug hunting abilities and have fun with it. «It is an entertaining hobby and a learning-journey», the geek concluded.
