One hacker from Karachi has carved out a reputation for quality over quantity. Faizan Elahi, known in the cybersecurity community as 4t7, maintains an impressive 11.45 points per bug—a metric that rivals even the industry’s most accomplished hackers. His journey from math teacher to full-time bug hunter reveals a story of resilience, precision, and an almost obsessive pursuit of impact.
4t7’s entry into cybersecurity wasn’t driven by passion—at least not initially. “I had zero interest in cybersecurity when I started,” he explains. “I was more into modding games, writing scripts, and dreaming of becoming a developer.” The catalyst was his cousin, who recognized potential that 4t7 himself hadn’t seen. “He kept encouraging me nonstop. At one point, he even submitted bugs on my behalf to his private clients just to motivate me,” 4t7 recalls. “He basically threw me into the deep end. I still joke with him that he forced me into this ‘misery,’ especially whenever I’m buried in bug reports.”
Despite the jokes, 4t7 acknowledges a deeper truth about his path: “Looking back, I think life had already chosen this path for me.” After three years of active hunting and more than six years in the field, he can finally admit that he has found his calling. “Hacking completes me. It’s become a part of my identity,” he reflects. For someone from a small middle-class family in Pakistan, this career has been life-changing. “It has completely changed my lifestyle,” he notes. “Hacking has allowed me to support my family in ways a local 9–5 never could.”
The handle “’4t7’ isn’t random—it’s a philosophy. “4t7 → 47 → Agent 47. A small nod to the Hitman game series,” he explains. “Not because I’m bald or wear suits (LOL) but because I always liked the idea of approaching things with precision, patience, and a clean methodology—that’s the vibe I try to bring to my hacking.”
This precision manifests in his approach to vulnerabilities. “I’m a perfectionist by nature, so when I find a bug like an XSS, I don’t stop at the surface,” 4t7 says. “I always try to turn it into the highest-impact scenario possible, often leading to full account takeovers.” His specialization in injection attacks, particularly XSS, goes beyond technical competence—it’s an art form. “It’s unpredictable and creative, and it forces you to break through layers of filters and logic step by step,” he explains. “The best part is pushing those findings all the way to full account takeover. Every layer of defense feels like a barrier that’s shielding the ultimate target, and when the payload finally cuts through everything and lands a complete account takeover, it’s the clean 4t7 shot. PWNED.”
But his expertise extends far beyond XSS. He’s discovered SQL injections, template injections, prototype pollution, and the near-mythical OS command injection in production environments. “Many top hackers go years without ever seeing a real OS command injection on a live production target,” he points out. “Labs are designed for you to find them; real applications are not. Landing one in the wild feels like pulling off a clean Agent 47 execution: quiet, precise, and high-impact—a true ‘4t7’ moment.”
When asked about underappreciated vulnerabilities, 4t7 doesn’t even pause to think. “If I had to pick one vulnerability that’s underrated, it would be prototype pollution,” he asserts. “People still don’t take it as seriously as they should. It doesn’t always trigger an immediate, flashy impact like RCE or SQLi, so it’s often ignored or mislabeled, but in the right environment, prototype pollution can completely rewrite how an application behaves.”
His frustration with the industry’s dismissal of this vulnerability class is palpable. “It’s honestly so underappreciated that one time, a program owner marked my prototype‑pollution‑to‑XSS chain as a duplicate of a regular XSS report,” he recounts. “Like, this thing literally caused the XSS.” His experience highlights a broader problem: the security community’s tendency to focus on immediately exploitable bugs while overlooking the foundational vulnerabilities that enable them. “In the right environment, prototype pollution can completely rewrite how an application behaves. It can turn into XSS, privilege escalation, logic manipulation, and in some cases, full compromise of an app,” he warns.
True to his perfectionist nature, 4t7 isn’t content with existing tools. He’s developing Reflector, a scanner that “encodes my own methodology for testing targets,” he explains. “Right now, it scans for XSS, template injections, and related issues by studying an application, crawling paths, uncovering hidden endpoints, extracting parameters from responses and JS files, and then identifying reflections.”
What sets Reflector apart is its intelligence. “Instead of spamming the server with massive GitHub payload lists, it focuses on breaking out of attribute values or script contexts, etc.,” 4t7 shares. “Once it finds a reflection, I craft the payload manually based on the exact scenario.” The tool uses a Selenium-based browser, which gives it a crucial advantage. “Because it uses a real Selenium-based browser, it avoids the DOM-related blind spots of proxy-based scanners like Burp Suite and can actually see if a reflection breaks the DOM or affects rendering,” he notes.
Despite being in its early stages, Reflector has already proven its worth. “It has already helped me identify vulnerabilities in a major tech company on Bugcrowd (a private engagement),” he reveals.
On the inevitable topic of AI in security research, 4t7 takes a pragmatic view. “AI is going to raise the baseline,” he predicts. “New researchers will learn faster, and companies will automatically filter out a lot of the basic vulnerabilities. But real hacking requires creativity, context, and intuition—all things that AI struggles with.”
His perspective is nuanced; he believes that AI isn’t a threat but a filter that will elevate the entire field. “Instead of replacing hackers, I think AI will push us to work on more advanced bugs, chains, and logical flaws,” he believes. “It will become a tool, not a competitor.” When asked how hackers can stay ahead of automation, his answer is simple: “By doing what AI can’t. Hackers stay ahead by being unpredictable—chaining unrelated bugs, abusing assumptions, bending logic, and thinking sideways.”
He draws a clear distinction between machine and human capabilities. “Automation is rule‑based, pattern‑based, and predictable. Humans aren’t,” he states. “That’s why even with advanced scanners everywhere, a handcrafted XSS bypass or a clever prototype pollution chain still slips through. Machines repeat patterns; hackers break them.”
For newcomers, 4t7’s advice is grounded in hard-won experience. “Whatever you learn from labs, apply it to real applications. Labs are predictable; real apps are where you get your reality check,” he advises. His perspective on duplicates is refreshingly positive. “If you get a duplicate, take it as a win. You were close, just a bit late. Go deeper.”
He’s also empathetic to those experiencing burnout: “Set consistent hours. Don’t burn yourself out by overdoing it in one sitting. A steady pace beats intensity that leads to disappointment and quitting.” His own routine reflects this wisdom. “I never sit for long stretches. I keep a specific time window for hunting, and once I feel my mind getting tired, I stop,” he shares. “I reset by watching movies, gaming with my wife, going shopping with her, or just going out for a change of environment.”
4t7 has a clear goal for the future. “I’d love to become an ASE at Bugcrowd someday,” he says. “It feels like the natural next step, a way to give back to the industry I’ve spent so much time growing in.” The challenge of geography doesn’t deter him. “I know Bugcrowd usually doesn’t hire ASEs from the Pakistan region,” he acknowledges. “But this won’t stop me from aiming for this position. I’d love to reach a point where my work speaks loud enough that geography doesn’t matter.”
The cybersecurity industry is often dominated by volume and speed, but 4t7 moves a little different—he’s a methodical craftsman who treats each vulnerability as an opportunity for impact. His story reminds us that in cybersecurity, as in the Hitman games that inspired his handle, sometimes the most effective approach is the one executed with precision, patience, and perfect timing.