php-serialized-data

Parse PHP serialized data with JavaScript.

PHP's serialize function doesn't have a spec, so I used the handy Kaitai Struct spec as reference instead

yarn add php-serialized-data

Or use it directly in the browser:

import { parse } from 'https://cdn.pika.dev/php-serialized-data';

Usage Examples

import { parse } from 'php-serialized-data';

const data = parse( 'O:8:"stdClass":2:{s:3:"foo";s:3:"bar";s:16:"\u0000stdClass\u0000secret";s:3:"shh";}' );

/*
PHPObject(
  className: 'stdClass',
  value: Map( [
    [ PHPString( value: 'foo' ), PHPString( value: 'bar' ) ],
    [ PHPString( value: '\u0000stdClass\u0000secret' ), PHPString( value: 'shh' ) ],
  ] ),
)
*/

data.toJs();

/*
{ foo: 'bar' }
*/

data.toJs( { private: true } );

/*
{ foo: 'bar', secret: 'shh' }
*/

It even works with multi-byte data like emoji:

import { parse } from 'php-serialized-data';

const data = parse( 's:4:"🐊";' );

/*
PHPString( value: '🐊' )
*/

data.toJs();

/*
'🐊'
*/

Parsing options

The main parse() function takes two parameters, the input string, and an options object.

parse( input, options? )

Option	Type	Default	Description
fixNulls	Boolean	false	Attempt to fix missing/broken null chars in input. Useful when the input was pasted from the clipboard.

The fixNulls option attempts to fix the following scenarios:

• Nulls have been replaced with the Unicode replacement character �. This can happen if the serialized string was output into a HTML page.
• Nulls are missing. This usually happens if the value was copied to the clipboard. If the string byte count was larger than the content, then the following fixes are attempted, depending on the content of the string.
  • If the byte count is larger by 1, and the value starts with lambda_, then the string is probably a serialized lambda function.
  • If the byte count is larger by 2, and the value starts with an asterisk *, then the string is probably a protected property.
  • If the byte count is larger by 2, and the other scenarios do not apply, the string is probably a private class property.

JS Value Conversion

Use the .toJs() method on the output to convert to native JavaScript types.

value.toJs( options? )

The .toJs() method accepts an options object:

Option	Type	Default	Description
private	Boolean	false	Include private & protected class properties
detectArrays	Boolean	false	Output arrays where possible, instead of objects

Supports PHP Types

• Null
• Integer
• Float
  • Infinity
  • NaN
  • Scientific notation
• String
  • Multi-byte (e.g. emoji)
• Boolean
• Array
• Object
  • Classes
  • Custom Objects (contain arbitrary serialized data. e.g. SplDoublyLinkedList)
• Reference
  • Value Reference
  • Object Reference
  • Circular Reference

TODO

• Throw on trailing data
• Option to ignore string lengths (should fix newline mismatches & trimmed whitespace)