Boolean and Integer are strings after serialization

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I’m using WordPress update_post_meta to save an array like 

$obj = array(
    'array' => array(1, 'zwei', !!3),
    'string' => 'abc',
    'bool' => true,
    'bool2' => false,
    'integer' => 1,
    'integer2' => 17
);

update_post_meta($post_ID, 'my-key', $obj);

however if I check the raw field i get

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a:6:{s:5:"array";a:3:{i:0;i:1;i:1;s:4:"zwei";i:2;s:1:"1";}s:6:"string";s:3:"abc";s:4:"bool";s:1:"1";s:5:"bool2";s:1:"0";s:7:"integer";i:1;s:8:"integer2";i:17;}

while it should be 

a:6:{s:5:"array";a:3:{i:0;i:1;i:1;s:4:"zwei";i:2;b:1;}s:6:"string";s:3:"abc";s:4:"bool";b:1;s:5:"bool2";b:0;s:7:"integer";i:1;s:8:"integer2";i:17;}

You may notice that all boolean are stored as string (b:1 = s:1:"1")

The problem is only on certain WordPress installations and not on every one. I’ve also checked the serialize function which is working correct (returns b:1)

Also using get_post_meta 

get_post_meta($post_ID, 'my-key', true);

and checkin the value with is_bool returns false (obviously)

EDIT: just noticed also integers get saved as strings

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  1. update_post_meta uses update_metadata you can find it’s code here in that function if you have a look at line 119 you will see that the meta_value is passed to wp_unslash which return value is a string (the function that changes the data type is stripslashes_deep)

    As a workaround you can serialize the value before passing it to update_post_meta()

    EDIT:
    Found the issue: before 3.6.0 update_metadata had on line 117 this code:

    $meta_key = stripslashes($meta_key)

    stripslashes is a php function that returns a string.
    as of 3.6.0 that line looks like:

    $meta_key = wp_unslash($meta_key);

    which stripslashes only string type meta_keys.

    An update to wordpress 3.6.0 or above will fix the issue.