More than four years since its previous issue, iconic hacker zine Phrack has published a new issue.

Phrack issue number 69 contains articles from researchers Aaron Portnoy and Alisa Esage, as well as articles on OS X rootkits and exploiting Ruby on Rails.

Other topics include the history of hacker groups, Adobe Flash Player bugs, and a profile on Russian security researcher Alexander "Solar Designer" Pesalyak.

The release comes four years after the previous publication and more than 30 years since the first issue of Phrack was posted. Issue number 69 will also usher in a new publishing format Phrack calls "Paper Feed" that will see new articles posted between issue releases.

"The way it works is that you submit a paper, we review it and it gets published," the Phrack intro reads.

"No need to wait a month (or two years ;-) until you see your article in the next Phrack issue. When the time has come, we'll decide to compile a new issue from the articles that have been submitted."

The Phrack team said that it hopes the Paper Feed will be used by security researchers to create detailed explanations of their work to distribute alongside presentations and disclosures and create a new way for Phrack to put out information rather than the traditional periodical release.

First released in 1985 via BBS, Phrack has been staffed by dozens of editors and contributors in its three-plus decades. The long-running zine has also hosted a number of notable articles, including the famed Hacker Manifesto and Smashing The Stack For Fun And Profit.

In the latest edition, Phrack staff joked that the four-year layoff was in part due to a fear of apocalypse, saying in the introduction:

What if the Mayans were right? What if comets hit Earth? Yes, we were worried too, so we decided to take some time off and enjoy the last days of this planet. Once enough time had passed, we were pretty sure our species was not going to disappear.

Issue 69, as well as every past issue of Phrack, can be found at the Phrack.org website. ®