How I Find Open Redirects

How I Find Open Redirects | by Riya Limba - Freedium Milestone: 20GB Reached We’ve reached 20GB of stored data — thank you for helping us grow! Patreon Ko-fi Liberapay Close < Go to the original How I Find Open Redirects Open Redirect is one of the most underrated vulnerabilities in bug bounty. Many beginners ignore it because it looks simple — but it can… Riya Limba Follow ~3 min read · April 1, 2026 (Updated: April 1, 2026) · Free: Yes Open Redirect is one of the most underrated vulnerabilities in bug bounty. Many beginners ignore it because it looks simple — but it can lead to phishing, account takeover, token leakage, and OAuth abuse . In this article, I'll show how I find open redirects step-by-step using a simple and beginner-friendly approach. What is an Open Redirect? An Open Redirect happens when a website redirects users to a URL controlled by the attacker. Example: https://example.com/redirect?url=https://google.com If the website redirects to any external domain without validation, it's vulnerable. Attacker can change it to: https://example.com/redirect?url=https://evil.com Now the victim clicks a trusted domain → gets redirected to malicious site. This is commonly used in: Phishing attacks OAuth token theft Bypass allowlists Login redirect abuse My Step-by-Step Method to Find Open Redirects Step 1 — Look for Redirect Parameters First, I search for common redirect parameters: redirect= url= next= return= returnUrl= continue= dest= destination= redir= redirect_uri= callback= goto= out= view= Example: https://target.com/login?next=/dashboard Now change it to: https://target.com/login?next=https://evil.com If it redirects → Open Redirect found. Step 2 — Use Google Dorks I use Google to find redirect endpoints. Search queries: site:target.com redirect= site:target.com url= site:target.com next= site:target.com return= site:target.com redirect_uri= These help find hidden redirect endpoints quickly. Step 3 — Test Payloads Now I replace values with redirect payloads. Basic payloads: https://evil.com //evil.com ///evil.com https:evil.com https://[email protected] Example: https://target.com/redirect?url=//evil.com If it redirects → vulnerability confirmed. Step 4 — Check Login & OAuth Pages Open redirects are commonly found in: Login pages Logout pages OAuth flows SSO authentication Password reset redirects Example: https://target.com/login?redirect=https://evil.com These are higher-impact open redirects. Step 5 — Check Redirect Responses in Burp Suite Send requests to Burp Suite and check: 301 redirect 302 redirect 307 redirect 308 redirect If the Location header contains your payload: Location: https://evil.com Then it's vulnerable. Pro Tip — Try Bypass Techniques Some applications block direct external URLs. Try bypass payloads: https://target.com.evil.com https://evil.com%2f.target.com //evil.com https:////evil.com These sometimes bypass weak validation. Real Impact of Open Redirect Open redirect alone = usually low severity But chained with other bugs = higher impact It can lead to: Phishing attacks OAuth token theft Login CSRF Account takeover (in chained scenarios) Security filter bypass That's why bug bounty programs still accept them. My Quick Checklist I always check: Login redirect parameters OAuth redirect_uri Logout redirect Callback URLs Continue parameters Return URL after login Email verification redirects Tools I Use You can find open redirects using: Burp Suite Browser manual testing Param Miner Wayback URLs gau / gauplus hakrawler Katana Manual testing often works best. Final Thoughts Open redirects are easy to find but powerful when chained with other vulnerabilities. Most beginners skip them — but experienced hunters always check them first. Because: Easy to test Quick to confirm Sometimes high impact Start testing redirect parameters on every target. #cybersecurity #bug-bounty #ethical-hacking #web-security #osint Reporting a Problem Sometimes we have problems displaying some Medium posts. If you have a problem that some images aren't loading - try using VPN. Probably you have problem with access to Medium CDN (or fucking Cloudflare's bot detection algorithms are blocking you).