Humiliating IIS servers for fun and jail time
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
A bug bounty hunter details how to find and exploit common IIS misconfigurations.
The article catalogs techniques for targeting IIS servers, from discovery via Shodan and Google dorking to exploitation. Key methods include: internal IP disclosure via HTTP/1.0 requests, tilde enumeration of 8.3 shortnames to discover hidden files, fuzzing for ASP.NET debug endpoints like `trace.axd` and `elmah.axd`, and attacking `web.config` files through path traversal or direct access. The author recommends using tools like `shortscan`, `nuclei`, and `ffuf` with IIS-specific wordlists, and suggests using LLMs or BigQuery to resolve shortname fragments into full filenames. The post frames these as bug bounty methods, not malicious hacking.
What commenters are saying
Comments split into several camps. Some found the article a useful, signal-dense reference for pentesting work. Others criticized its tone as script-kiddie material from the early 2000s, noting the techniques are well-known and low-sophistication. A third camp acknowledged that while dated, many large organizations (banks, governments, SolarWinds) still run IIS, making the techniques relevant. One defender argued the article makes the case to 'recon harder.' A separate thread debated whether the author's framing as 'bug bounty' absolves the adversarial tone. A correction noted that 8.3 filename creation is disabled by default on non-C drives on modern Windows.