Subdomain Takeovers in 2025 😍

Welcome back, hackers 🧠

Yesterday we talked about recon workflows that actually catch bugs.

Today, we go deeper — into a vulnerability that still lives in the cracks of DNS configs, CI/CD rush jobs, and forgotten assets.

Subdomain Takeovers in 2025 aren’t dead.
They’ve just become invisible to lazy hunters.

Let’s change that.

Why Subdomain Takeovers Still Exist in 2025 🤓

Every year, companies ship faster.
Faster = mistakes.
Mistakes = exposed subdomains with dangling records.

“404? No problem.” — said every dev who left a dangling CNAME without deleting the DNS record.

But guess what?

To you — the smart hacker reading this — a 404 means one thing:
Blood in the water.

Takeovers are still real because companies:

• Forget to remove DNS records after tearing down services (GitHub Pages, Heroku, AWS S3, etc.)
• Rebrand, migrate, or merge — but their old DNS still points to gone services
• Leave wildcard subdomains wide open due to careless automation

💡 Tech evolves fast. Misconfigs evolve with it.

But Here’s the Catch 🎣

Everyone checks for takeovers — but few catch them.
Why?

Because most people:

• Scan once. Never recheck.
• Only run tools like subzy or tko-subs without validation
• Miss changes in cloud service behaviors
• Don’t fuzz redirect chains or query-based takeovers

Want to win?
Be the one who watches what others ignore.

Real-World Takeover: My Story 🧠

Last month, I found an old staging-assets.example.com subdomain.

Nothing special, right?

But…
1. It had a dangling CNAME to Azure Blob storage.
2. No CSP or redirection.
3. Took me 10 minutes to claim it and serve a malicious JS file.

📩 Company patched it
💰 I got paid
😱 Internal logs showed thousands of users were exposed through legacy API calls

That’s not just a bounty.
That’s impact.

Tools That Actually Work in 2025 🔧

Let’s not waste time with broken scripts.
Here’s what I use — tested daily:

🔹 tko-subs

Still relevant. Use the updated fingerprints.

tko-subs -domains live.txt -data providers-data.csv -output results.txt

🔹 subzy

Fast, Go-based. Great for CI/CD integrations.

subzy run --targets live.txt

🔹 nuclei

Yes, Nuclei. The new takeover-detection templates catch CNAME misconfigs + known service providers.

nuclei -l live.txt -t cves,takeovers/ -o takeovers.txt

Automation That Pays While You Sleep 🛠️

Want to win without burning out?

Use this daily recon loop:

#!/bin/bash
domain=$1
subs=$(subfinder -d $domain -silent)
echo "$subs" | httpx -silent | tee live.txt
subzy run --targets live.txt --hide_fails >> subzy.txt
nuclei -l live.txt -t takeovers/ >> nuclei-takeovers.txt

🧠 Cron it. Monitor it. Wake up to gold.

Bonus: Don’t Miss These Signals 🔍

You’re likely to find a takeover if:

• The company recently migrated from AWS to GCP
• Their blog or assets site is down but DNS still resolves
• Mobile app points to .s3.amazonaws.com or .github.io
• Their 404 page is custom — not from the service provider
• The subdomain has a CNAME to a deprovisioned platform

Look for signs of life in dead places.

The Psychology of Finding What Others Miss 🧠

Subdomain takeovers aren’t just a recon phase.
They’re a mindset.

Most hunters wait for tools to scream “vuln.”
You? You’ll find bugs by spotting subtle mistakes no scanner can see.

• Think like a forgotten engineer.
• Browse DNS like a forensic investigator.
• And automate like a hacker who knows the game isn’t fair — but can be won.

Your Turn to Share 🫵😍

Have you ever landed a juicy subdomain takeover?
Or built a custom script that catches what others miss?

Share it in the comments — let’s learn from each other.
I’ll feature the most creative or impactful ones in tomorrow’s post.

💥 Let’s turn this into a real hacker conversation — not just a blog.

🧠 Follow me for daily drops on hacker mindset, real tools, and bug bounty breakthroughs that actually matter.

🔮 What’s Coming Tomorrow…

Bug Bounty Mindset Shifts That 10x Your Game

• 🧩 Why most hackers burn out before their first bug
• 🛠️ How I kept showing up — even when I found nothing
• 💣 The mindset shifts that make the difference between noise and results

If you’ve ever felt stuck, unmotivated, or ready to quit — don’t miss this one.

Stay sharp. Stay hungry.
—

Đeepanshu

🧢