Reliably identify the class of a serialized Java object

Question

I am in need of reliably identifying the class of a serialized object in Java without deserializing it.

So far I have found that the raw data stream will contain the class name. However someone could create a custom class with an arbitrary name to fool the recognition.

Now I am considering implementing a system where the stored data of the object is also checked against a template but this seems cumbersome.

Is there a package that already does this and/or is there a simpler way to reliably identify the class of a serialized Java object?

Answer 1

Have you looked at JavaAssist (http://www.csg.ci.i.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~chiba/javassist/)? It appears to be able to load class files metadata and make it available without necessarily creating the class.