// Prerequisites
What to read before Black Hat GraphQL
If Black Hat GraphQL feels too steep at intermediate level, here is what to read first. Lighter books in the same topics that build the prerequisites this one assumes.
01 · 2022
Hacking APIs
Corey Ball's structured approach to attacking REST and GraphQL APIs: enumeration, auth flaws, business logic, mass assignment, and the testing harness around them.
Intermediate4/5Corey J. Ball02 · 2011
The Web Application Hacker's Handbook
The exhaustive reference for web app pentesting, comprehensive but increasingly a historical document.
Intermediate4/5Dafydd Stuttard, Marcus Pinto03 · 2021
Bug Bounty Bootcamp
Vickie Li's pragmatic walk through the bug-bounty workflow, from picking a program and recon to reporting findings that actually pay out.
Beginner4/5Vickie Li04 · 2019
Real-World Bug Hunting
Peter Yaworski breaks down real disclosed reports across major bug bounty programs, organized by vulnerability class, so readers can pattern-match real findings rather than learn classes from textbook examples.
Beginner4/5Peter Yaworski05 · 2020
Web Security for Developers
Malcolm McDonald's developer-side primer on the OWASP-class issues, framed around real attacks and defended with code patterns rather than vendor products.
Beginner4/5Malcolm McDonald06 · 2020
Alice and Bob Learn Application Security
Tanya Janca's hands-on AppSec primer covering threat modeling, secure design, secure coding, testing, deployment, and the social side of running an AppSec program — through a friendly, narrative-driven structure.
Beginner4/5Tanya Janca07 · 2014
Penetration Testing
Georgia Weidman's lab-driven introduction to pentesting, walking the reader from setting up a target environment through scanning, exploitation, post-exploitation, and reporting.
Beginner4/5Georgia Weidman08 · 2021
Real-World Cryptography
David Wong's hands-on tour of the cryptographic primitives, protocols and pitfalls that show up in actual production systems, with deliberate attention to TLS, Noise, modern AEAD, and post-quantum.
Intermediate5/5David Wong