Generated by Claude

nano.md

Nano Editor — Bug Bounty Hunter's Field Guide (Mac)

Everything you need to edit recon data, payloads, configs, and notes from the terminal. On Mac: M- (Meta) = press Esc then the key. Fix permanently: Terminal → Settings → Profiles → Keyboard → "Use Option as Meta key"

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1. Navigation

Keys	Action
Ctrl + A	Jump to start of line
Ctrl + E	Jump to end of line
Ctrl + /	Go to specific line number
Ctrl + Y	Page up
Ctrl + V	Page down

Bug Bounty Use Cases

# You ran a big nmap scan and want to jump to a specific port finding
nano nmap_results.txt
# Ctrl+/ → type 847 → jumps to line 847 where port 8443 was found

# Reviewing a massive JS file from a target for hardcoded secrets
nano app.bundle.js
# Ctrl+/ → jump to the line number grep told you about
grep -n "apiKey" app.bundle.js   # shows line 2341
# Then in nano: Ctrl+/ → 2341

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2. Cut, Copy & Paste

Keys	Action
Ctrl + K	Cut entire line
Ctrl + U	Paste
Esc, A	Set mark (start selection)
Esc, 6	Copy selection (without cutting)

Bug Bounty Use Cases

# Building a custom wordlist — cut junk lines from a scraped list
nano wordlist.txt
# Move to a useless line → Ctrl+K → gone
# Repeat for all junk lines

# Duplicating a working payload to tweak a variant
# Go to your XSS payload line
# Esc, A → Ctrl+E → Esc, 6 (copy it)
# Move down → Ctrl+U (paste duplicate)
# Now edit the copy: <img src=x onerror=alert(1)> → <svg/onload=alert(1)>

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3. Block Selection

Keys	Action
Esc, A	Start selection
Arrow keys	Extend selection
Ctrl + K	Cut selected block
Esc, 6	Copy selected block
Ctrl + U	Paste block

Bug Bounty Use Cases

# Extracting only the live subdomains from a mixed recon file
nano recon_all.txt
# Mark the block of live hosts → Esc, A → select → Esc, 6
# Open new buffer → Esc, F → Ctrl+U → paste → Ctrl+O → save as live_hosts.txt

# Grabbing relevant headers from a burp response dump
nano burp_response.txt
# Select just the Set-Cookie / Authorization headers block
# Esc, A → arrow down to cover headers → Ctrl+K
# Paste into your notes file

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4. Search

Keys	Action
Ctrl + W	Search
Ctrl + W → Enter	Find next occurrence
Ctrl + B	Find previous

Bug Bounty Use Cases

# Searching for sensitive endpoints in a JS file
nano app.js
# Ctrl+W → /admin → Enter → finds first admin route
# Ctrl+W → Enter → next match
# Ctrl+W → Enter → keep going until "Search Wrapped"

# Hunting for API keys in config files
nano config.json
# Ctrl+W → api_key
# Ctrl+W → secret
# Ctrl+W → token
# Ctrl+W → password

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5. Regex Search

Keys	Action
Ctrl + W → Esc, R	Toggle regex mode ON
Type pattern → Enter	Search

Bug Bounty Use Cases

# Find all IP addresses in a log file
nano access.log
# Ctrl+W → Esc, R → [0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+ → Enter
# Cycles through every IP in the log

# Find hardcoded JWT tokens
nano source.js
# Ctrl+W → Esc, R → eyJ[A-Za-z0-9_-]+\.eyJ[A-Za-z0-9_-]+ → Enter

# Find AWS access keys
nano .env
# Ctrl+W → Esc, R → AKIA[0-9A-Z]{16} → Enter

# Find potential IDOR parameters
nano endpoints.txt
# Ctrl+W → Esc, R → (id|user_id|account_id|uid)=[0-9]+ → Enter

# Find all URLs in a scraped page
nano page.html
# Ctrl+W → Esc, R → https?://[a-zA-Z0-9./?=_-]+ → Enter

# Find base64 encoded strings (potential secrets)
nano response.txt
# Ctrl+W → Esc, R → [A-Za-z0-9+/]{20,}={0,2} → Enter

# Find email addresses in breach data / scraped content
nano dump.txt
# Ctrl+W → Esc, R → [a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,} → Enter

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6. Find & Replace

Keys	Action
Ctrl + \	Open replace
Type search → Enter	Set search term
Type replace → Enter	Set replacement
Y / N / A	Yes / No / All

Bug Bounty Use Cases

# Swapping target domains across a payload list
nano payloads.txt
# Ctrl+\ → old-target.com → Enter → new-target.com → Enter → A
# Instantly retargets all your payloads

# Cleaning up gobuster output — remove status codes to get clean URLs
nano gobuster.txt
# Ctrl+\ → " (Status: 200)" → Enter → (leave empty) → Enter → A

# Updating authorization tokens across multiple curl commands in notes
nano api_tests.txt
# Ctrl+\ → Bearer eyJold... → Enter → Bearer eyJnew... → Enter → A

# Switching HTTP to HTTPS across all endpoints
nano urls.txt
# Ctrl+\ → http:// → Enter → https:// → Enter → A

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7. Regex Replace

Keys	Action
Ctrl + \ → Esc, R	Replace with regex ON
Capture groups: \1, \2	Back-references in replacement

Bug Bounty Use Cases

# Convert subfinder output to full URLs
# BEFORE: api.target.com
# AFTER:  https://api.target.com
nano subdomains.txt
# Ctrl+\ → Esc, R
# Search:  ^(.+)$
# Replace: https://\1
# Press A → all lines become full URLs

# Extract just domains from URLs
# BEFORE: https://api.target.com/v1/users
# AFTER:  api.target.com
nano urls.txt
# Ctrl+\ → Esc, R
# Search:  https?://([^/]+).*
# Replace: \1
# Press A

# Add port 8080 to all subdomains for scanning
# BEFORE: api.target.com
# AFTER:  api.target.com:8080
nano live_hosts.txt
# Ctrl+\ → Esc, R
# Search:  ^(.+)$
# Replace: \1:8080
# Press A

# Convert Nmap output to clean IP:PORT format
# BEFORE: Discovered open port 443/tcp on 10.0.0.5
# AFTER:  10.0.0.5:443
nano nmap_scan.txt
# Ctrl+\ → Esc, R
# Search:  Discovered open port ([0-9]+)/tcp on ([0-9.]+)
# Replace: \2:\1
# Press A

# Mask sensitive data in screenshots/notes before sharing
# Replace API keys with [REDACTED]
nano report_notes.txt
# Ctrl+\ → Esc, R
# Search:  (api_key|token|secret)=([^ ]+)
# Replace: \1=[REDACTED]
# Press A

# Wrap each line as a curl command
# BEFORE: https://api.target.com/users
# AFTER:  curl -sk https://api.target.com/users
nano endpoints.txt
# Ctrl+\ → Esc, R
# Search:  ^(.+)$
# Replace: curl -sk \1
# Press A

# Convert param=value to JSON body format
# BEFORE: username=admin&password=test123
# Need to do it step by step:
nano params.txt
# Step 1: Ctrl+\ → & → Enter → ", " → Enter → A
# Step 2: Ctrl+\ → Esc, R → ([^=]+)=([^ ,]+) → Enter → "\1": "\2" → Enter → A
# Step 3: Manually add { } around it

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8. Indent / Unindent

Keys	Action
Esc, }	Indent selected block
Esc, {	Unindent selected block

Bug Bounty Use Cases

# Formatting a messy Python exploit script
nano exploit.py
# Select the block: Esc, A → arrow down
# Esc, } to indent inside a function
# Esc, { to unindent if over-indented

# Cleaning up a JSON response for readability
nano api_response.json
# Select nested objects → Esc, } to indent deeper

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9. Run External Commands Inside Nano

Keys	Action
Select text + Ctrl + T	Pipe selection through command (replaces it)
No selection + Ctrl + T	Insert command output at cursor

Bug Bounty Use Cases

# Sort and deduplicate a subdomain list in-place
nano subdomains.txt
# Select all: Esc, A → Ctrl+V (page to end)
# Ctrl+T → sort -u → Enter
# Duplicates gone, list sorted

# Decode base64 strings found during recon
nano encoded_data.txt
# Select the base64 string
# Ctrl+T → base64 -d → Enter
# String replaced with decoded plaintext

# URL-decode encoded parameters
nano params.txt
# Select: %3Cscript%3Ealert(1)%3C%2Fscript%3E
# Ctrl+T → python3 -c "import sys,urllib.parse; print(urllib.parse.unquote(sys.stdin.read().strip()))" → Enter
# Becomes: <script>alert(1)</script>

# Reverse shell — quickly look up your IP without leaving nano
# Ctrl+T (no selection) → curl -s ifconfig.me → Enter
# Your IP is inserted at cursor — paste it into your reverse shell payload

# Count how many unique subdomains you have
# Ctrl+T (no selection) → wc -l < subdomains.txt → Enter
# Number inserted at cursor

# Quick DNS resolve a list of subdomains
nano subdomains.txt
# Select all
# Ctrl+T → while read d; do echo "$d $(dig +short $d)"; done → Enter
# Each line now has: subdomain IP

# Extract all URLs from an HTML page you pasted
nano page.html
# Select all
# Ctrl+T → grep -oE 'https?://[^"'"'"' >]+' → Enter
# Replaced with clean URL list

# Remove duplicate lines while preserving order
nano endpoints.txt
# Select all
# Ctrl+T → awk '!seen[$0]++' → Enter

# Convert a list of IPs to CIDR notation check
nano ips.txt
# Select all
# Ctrl+T → while read ip; do whois "$ip" | grep -i cidr; done → Enter

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10. Multiple Buffers

nano -F yourfile.txt   # start with multi-buffer support

Keys	Action
Esc, F	Open new empty buffer
Esc, .	Switch to next buffer
Esc, ,	Switch to previous buffer

Bug Bounty Use Cases

# Working on an exploit while referencing the original source
nano -F exploit.py
# Esc, F → opens new buffer
# Ctrl+R → Ctrl+T → cat original_source.js → Enter
# Now toggle between buffers with Esc, . and Esc, ,

# Building a report while referencing raw scan output
nano -F report.md
# Esc, F → new buffer → Ctrl+R → Ctrl+T → cat nmap_results.txt
# Esc, F → new buffer → Ctrl+R → Ctrl+T → cat nuclei_output.txt
# Switch between all three: Esc, . / Esc, ,

# Running a command in scratch buffer to preview before applying
nano -F subdomains.txt
# Esc, F → new buffer
# Ctrl+T → sort -u subdomains.txt → Enter
# Check the output looks good
# Then go back and apply to original

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11. Suspend & Resume (Quick Terminal Access)

Keys	Action
Ctrl + Z	Suspend nano → back to terminal
fg	Resume nano exactly where you left off

Bug Bounty Use Cases

# You're editing a payload list and need to run a quick test
nano payloads.txt
# Ctrl+Z → suspended
curl -s "https://target.com/api?q=<script>alert(1)</script>"
# Check the response
fg   # back to nano

# Running a quick nmap check while editing notes
nano recon_notes.md
# Ctrl+Z
nmap -sV -p 443 target.com
fg   # back to notes, paste the results

# Checking if a subdomain resolves while editing your list
nano subdomains.txt
# Ctrl+Z
dig +short api.target.com
fg   # back to editing

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12. Useful Nano Flags for Bug Bounty Work

# Open with line numbers (great for code review)
nano -l app.js

# Open as read-only (safe viewing of configs)
nano -v /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

# Open with multi-buffer support
nano -F exploit.py

# Open multiple files at once
nano -F urls.txt subdomains.txt endpoints.txt
# Switch between: Esc, . and Esc, ,

# Open with soft line wrapping (long URLs don't break)
nano -S response.txt

# Open at a specific line (jump straight to finding)
nano +2341 app.bundle.js

# Combine flags for ideal recon editing
nano -lS -F subdomains.txt

# Backup original before editing
nano -B target_config.txt
# Saves target_config.txt~ as backup automatically

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13. Nano Config for Bug Bounty (~/.nanorc)

Create this file once and nano becomes much more usable:

nano ~/.nanorc

Paste this:

# Show line numbers always
set linenumbers

# Enable mouse support
set mouse

# Soft wrap long lines (URLs, base64 strings)
set softwrap

# Tab = 4 spaces (Python friendly)
set tabsize 4
set tabstospaces

# Smooth scrolling
set smooth

# Show cursor position in status bar
set constantshow

# Auto-indent (great for Python/scripts)
set autoindent

# Enable multiple buffers by default
set multibuffer

# Remember search history
set historylog

# Backup files before editing
set backup
set backupdir "~/.nano_backups"

Then create the backup directory:

mkdir -p ~/.nano_backups

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Quick Reference Card

NAVIGATION                  EDITING
Ctrl+A    Start of line     Ctrl+K    Cut line
Ctrl+E    End of line       Ctrl+U    Paste
Ctrl+/    Go to line        Esc, A    Set mark
Ctrl+Y    Page up           Esc, 6    Copy selection
Ctrl+V    Page down         Esc, }    Indent
                            Esc, {    Unindent

SEARCH & REPLACE            BUFFERS & COMMANDS
Ctrl+W    Search            Ctrl+T    Execute command
Ctrl+B    Search backward   Ctrl+Z    Suspend → fg to return
Ctrl+\    Replace           Esc, F    New buffer
Esc, R    Toggle regex      Esc, .    Next buffer
                            Esc, ,    Prev buffer

SAVE & EXIT
Ctrl+O    Save              Esc, U    Undo
Ctrl+X    Exit              Esc, E    Redo

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Stay in the terminal. Stay dangerous.