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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-24T05:33:12+00:00

I want to try abusing Java classes as structures and for that I’m wondering

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I want to try abusing Java classes as structures and for that I’m wondering if it is possible to serialize a byte array to a class and other way around.

So if I have a class like this:

public class Handshake
{
    byte command;
    byte error;
    short size;
    int major;
    int ts;
    char[] secret; // aligned size = 32 bytes
}

Is there an easy way (without having to manually read bytes and fill out the class which requires 3 times as much code) to deserialize a set of bytes into this class? I know that Java doesn’t have structs but I’m wondering if it is possible to simplify the serialization process so it does it automatically. The bytes are not from Java’s serializer, they are just aligned bytes derived from C structs.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The bytes are not from Java’s serializer, they are just aligned bytes
    derived from C structs.

    Bad idea. It can break as soon as someone compiles that code on a different platform, using a different compiler or settings, etc.

    Much better: use a standardized binary interface with implementations in Java and C++ like ASN.1 or Google’s Protocol Buffers.

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