Attributes in a Serializable object in a file

Question

Hello,
I have an application that stores a Serializable object into a file, but when I edit the file I can see the attributes from the stored object. And I thought that when you do that the stored data where bytes, instead of strings.
Can somebody explain me how can I store an object into a file that cannot be shown the content?
Here is my code:
String fichero_datos = "D:\\workspace2\\Cliente\\Datos.dat"; //That is the file
Cliente elCliente = new Cliente ("Fulanito"); //That is the object that stores a String
FileOutputStream fo = new FileOutputStream(fichero_datos);
ObjectOutputStream salida = new ObjectOutputStream(fo);
salida.writeObject(elCliente);
salida.flush();
salida.close();
fo.close();And the result file:
�..sr..ClienteJB``}\..L. nombreq..Ljava/lang/String;L ..Fulanito
I do not want the string �Fulanito� to be accesible by editing the file.
Thanks a lot for your attention,
- Susana

Answer 1

And I thought that when you do that the stored data where bytes, instead of strings. When encoded as UTF-8, String are made up of bytes. You cannot assume that because bytes are used, that the file should be completely unreadable.
You will have trouble editing the file in a text editor as the binary values will get changed and the the stream will appear to be corrupted.
The only way to ensure the data is unmodifyable is to encrypt the data.
If you want the data to be mearly unreadable, add a DeflatorOutputStream between the ObjectOutputStream and the FileOutputStream. This will compress the data and make it unreadbale unless you use an InflatorInputStream.