Phrack
phrack.org · Group blog · on HN since 2008
Phrack is a long-running hacker e-zine, started in 1985, publishing technical papers on exploitation and security along with hacker culture writing.
What HN saysCommenters call it the classic example of a tech zine, and note its crew still carries on the tradition alongside other hacker zines.
292HN people shared it
172linked it in comments
152stories submitted
5.6Kstory points
3 months agolast shared
2008people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)34 people · 397 points · first shared 2015 · 128 comments on HN
- 2Phrack Magazine (1985-2016)20 people · 570 points · first shared 2009 · 73 comments on HN
- 3Blast from Past: Smashing the Stack for Fun and Profit (1996)20 people · 28 points · first shared 2014 · 2 comments on HN
- 4The Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)9 people · 143 points · first shared 2025 · 73 comments on HN
- 5Apt Down – The North Korea Files9 people · 24 points · first shared 2025 · 1 comments on HN
- 6The Conscience of a Hacker8 people · 303 points · first shared 2008 · 113 comments on HN
- 7The Hacker's Renaissance: A Manifesto Reborn6 people · 17 points · first shared 2025 · 1 comments on HN
- 8The Fall of Hacker Groups6 people · 12 points · first shared 2016 · discussion on HN
- 9Phrack: Attacking Ruby on Rails Applications6 people · 11 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 10Attacking JavaScript Engines: A Case Study of JavaScriptCore and CVE-2016-46226 people · 8 points · first shared 2016 · discussion on HN
- 11Calling All Hackers5 people · 685 points · first shared 2024 · 253 comments on HN
- 12Phrack 69 released5 people · 633 points · first shared 2016 · 106 comments on HN
- 13Internet Voting: A Requiem for the Dream5 people · 7 points · first shared 2016 · 1 comments on HN
- 14Smashing The Stack For Fun And Profit [1996]5 people · 4 points · first shared 2010 · 2 comments on HN
- 15The Conscience of a Hacker4 people · 16 points · first shared 2017 · 2 comments on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
gynvael · 2025-12-03
If you're looking for recommendations for other zines, here are two (though both TXT format):
- https://phrack.org/ - well, this one you probably have heard about ;) (it has a printed form as well, but I think you have to actually find it on an event)
- https://tmpout.sh/ - this one focuses on Linux executables
But if you don't mind older content in amazing artistic forms, do check out old demoscene zines like Hugi: https://www.hugi.scene.org/ (note: these are in form of EXE files - that was pretty typical for scene zines)
margarina72 · 2022-09-29
Just to add to conversation, IMO the smol web is mostly in need of great content, and discoverability.
When I say great content, I mean something that can federate a large audience and serve as a reference and inspiration for others.
Today most of content creator are producing for the rich web, so most of the interaction happen there, and as a result most of the new content is formatted for the rich web.
From the top of my head, Phrack Magazine [1] is the only examples I can think of text based good content. It is mostly aimed at a very specific audience, but I am sure they are other examples out there.
Which basically lead to the other question of discoverability...
1: http://phrack.org/
insertcredit · 2018-08-16
This is a complete waste of time and money with the usual bullshit material taught by people who don't really have a clue and completely-out-of-touch-with-reality academic focus (write a buffer overflow!).
If you really want to learn invaluable cybersecurity skills,
start playing wargames. I suggest (1) which is one of the best. If you manage to reach level 25 on your own, then you are elite and the knowledge you gained doing so is not only extremely valuable but something you can be proud of.
(Sidenote: I would hire anyone who reached vortex level 25 on the spot and pay him a six figure salary, without looking at any of his other qualifications/degrees/past experience)
Additionally, read every single phrack (2) magazine from the past 20 years and try to understand most of the material within.
(1) http://overthewire.org/wargames/vortex/
(2) http://phrack.com
jmsdnns · 2016-08-30
Phrack is my favorite example of a tech zine! It's a classic.
http://www.phrack.org/
WestCoastJustin · 2013-11-02
If this kind of stuff interests you, then you should really check out Phrack Magazine [1] (although not very active anymore). There was an amazing article from '96 entitled "Smashing The Stack For Fun And Profit" [2], which gives a great overview of how this all works.
[1] http://www.phrack.com
[2] http://www.phrack.com/issues.html?issue=49&id=14#article
Schlagbohrer · 2026-07-29
Pastor Emmanual Laphroaig [1] as well as the phRack crew [2] continue carrying the torch in this tradition as best they can
[1] https://alchemistowl.org/pocorgtfo/
[2] https://phrack.org/issues/72/1
noperand · 2026-02-08
HACK THE PLANET! This is great!
You seem to have folks leveraging XSS against the leaderboard (classic!). Of course, the JSON is available via https://hackers-1995.vercel.app/api/leaderboard?limit=1000&offset=… XSS in the top entry (purportedly completed in -1e+129ms) might be firing since I get redirected to the Hacker's Manifesto included in the 40th anniversary issue of Phrack ;-)
```
{
"scores": [
{
"alias": "\u003Cimg onerror='document.location = `https://phrack.org/issues/7/3#article`' src=a\u003ESHOUTSOUTTOPHRACK\u003C/img\u003E",
"time_ms": -1e+129
}
...OTHER ATTEMPTS FOLLOW...
```
Regardless, thanks for sharing! Very cool!
vvpan · 2026-01-22
And a favorite Phrack article on the same topic - Internet Voting: A Requiem for the Dream [1]
[1] https://phrack.org/issues/69/11
alecco · 2025-08-19
Highly recommend: Phrack Prophile on Gera https://phrack.org/issues/72/2#article
(Though I'm biased)
agentkilo · 2025-03-23
Reminds me of Phrack [0]. I learnt all the stuff I know about the ELF format and some low-level debugger shenanigans there, and implemented my own PLT hook back then, good times.
[0]: https://phrack.org/
leptons · 2024-08-20
Phrack made some naughty things possible when I was much, much younger. Especially issue #37 http://phrack.org/issues/37/1.html
It wasn't exactly easy to find Phrack in 1992, but I found my way there. I haven't seen an archive of it online in many years. Love seeing this online now, especially with a new issue published! I'm looking forward to reading the recent ones.
defrost · 2023-09-22
If that's a serious TIL then you might enjoy the Ye Olde Timey classic
Smashing The Stack For Fun And Profit (1996)
(OG Phrack link) http://phrack.org/issues/49/14.html (Text-zine)
(TISM Berkeley CS coursework) https://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs161/fa08/papers/stack_smashing.pdf (PDF)
jamal-kumar · 2023-03-29
It was really bad when the best way to play a video on a website was through the god damn adobe flash plugin - isn't it crazy thinking back on how that was just normal for so long? [1] [2]
People lament the loss of all those flash games and stuff but some of those sites were SKETCHY, not to mention ad networks with unchecked .swf "creatives"...
[1] http://phrack.org/issues/69/8.html#article
[2] http://phrack.org/issues/69/13.html
e12e · 2022-09-14
Thanks for linking to Mudge's article - and for providing a time-line. For completeness - Smashing the stack for fun and profit:
http://phrack.org/issues/49/14.html#article
And in the same issue: a profile on Mudge!:
http://phrack.org/issues/49/4.html#article
> We discussed for a long time who in the hacking world today best
exemplifies everything that is right with hacking today, and we came
up with a unanimous conclusion that it was Mudge. And so we were quite
happy that our first choice for the first pro-phile that we have done
accepted our invitation. He cracked your Apple warez when you couldn't,
he wrote buffer overflows before they were cool, he owned your Sendmail
(and probably still does), and he still manages to give more back to the
community than anyone else around.
goshx · 2021-03-17
Also worth mentioning the Hacker’s Manifesto from 1986: http://phrack.org/issues/7/3.html
ArtWomb · 2021-03-16
Worth introducing to a new generation ;)
If you want a representative article to sample, let it be Strauss' "The Fall of Hacking Groups". A lament for the subculture of yore:
http://phrack.org/issues/69/6.html
Previous HN discussion here:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8734737
kdbg · 2021-01-25
While Phrack has stopped, there is the Paper Feed (no generic link, just have to link to the latest in the feed) http://phrack.org/papers/escaping_from_freebsd_bhyve.html
I think one big change these days is just that more people will self-publish their writeups and research. There are also a lot more security conferences that people present at some with a more narrow focus than the well known conferences too leading to more specialty content.
I do a weekly podcast[0] talking just about the latest exploits and strategies/research from the last week and pulling content for that is basically just following a ton of RSS feeds. There is a lot more getting written these days compared with the years when Phrack was regularly released. Unfortunately its also more spread out and harder to find.
[0] https://dayzerosec.com
tezzer · 2018-10-24
The "Paper Feed" section has 2 articles from 2018 and 2 from 2017. The most recent, "20 Years of Escaping the Java Sandbox" [1] is exactly what 16 year old me loved about phrack back in the day.
[1] http://www.phrack.org/papers/escaping_the_java_sandbox.html
jdp23 · 2018-10-24
Much of the early work on buffer overrun exploitation was published in Phrack. The article Brandon Baker and I did for IEEE Security and Privacy had a sidebar on "Nontraditional literature on buffer overruns" that's got some greatest hits like AlephOne’s Smashing the Stack for Fun and Profit from 1996 [1] and The Advanced return-into-lib(c) Exploits from 2001 [2]. Over the years, a surprising number of people have told me that this was their favorite part of the article!
[1] https://www.phrack.org/show.php?p=49&a=14
[2] https://www.phrack.org/show.php?p=58&a=4
sebcat · 2018-07-26
Made me think of an old Phrack article, "Low Cost and Portable GPS Jammer". Worth a read!
http://phrack.org/issues/60/13.html#article
danmg · 2018-07-05
Buffer overflows to gain remote access to a computer were fairly well known in 1995. "Smashing The Stack for Fun and Profit" (http://phrack.org/issues/49/14.html) came out the following year.
Most people weren't really writing network facing code though, so most buffer overflows were as you described. They just resulted in seemingly random crashes.
alltakendamned · 2017-12-18
I'd say the culture classic is the Hacker's Manifesto by The Mentor, published in Phrack 7.
http://phrack.org/issues/7/3.html#article
jmspring · 2016-05-30
As with any manifesto, words, interpretation, and practice are where they fail. I've been through the Agile/Scrum classes, yeah, great. Does management buy in, despite professing such? Yeah, not so great.
Unfortunately, for me, whenever I see the word "manifesto" in relation to computers, this is the one I immediately remember...
http://phrack.org/issues/7/3.html
endou · 2014-12-20
About 1. it was the subject of the following Phrack's publication: http://phrack.org/issues/68/19.html#article
gedrap · 2013-12-26
Might be this one: http://phrack.org/issues.html?issue=67&id=5#article if that's not the one you meant still definitely worth reading
throwaway125 · 2012-11-30
Phrack 65 had a paper calling out for people to write software that would make those types of laws unenforceable. The paper described the general idea and also presented a very technical explanation of one particular piece of software that did pretty much what the OPs software does too.
The paper is very much worth the read if you have some spare time. http://www.phrack.org/issues.html?issue=65&id=6&mode=txt
xtracto · 2012-06-16
Better to link directly to the source ( http://phrack.org/issues.html?issue=49&id=14#article ). Phrack Magazine is a great piece of history of the underground. Even today reading some of the articles provides good insight. After all, the essence of the computers architecture has not changed in all these years.
deyan · 2011-10-02
Gosh I was closing the tab and noticed with the corner of my eye this title. Almost couldn't believe it - it has been so long since I remember reading Phrack and this ground breaking article in particular.
Thanks for bringing up good old memories!
Here is the Phrack archive: http://www.phrack.org/ and the article in particular (I like the design better): http://www.phrack.org/issues.html?issue=49&id=14#article
raffi · 2010-11-24
One of my favorites, from:
http://www.phrack.org/issues.html?issue=64&id=4&page=2
See: An almost invisible ssh connection
ssh -T user@host /bin/bash -i
This connects you to a box with no TTY allocation. If someone types 'w', they will not see your connection.
bigmac · 2010-06-16
Pleased to see the classic "Smashing the stack for fun and profit." Absolutely essential for anyone in the security industry.
Looks like the link is dead; here is a mirror: http://www.phrack.com/issues.html?issue=49&id=14#article