diff --git a/app/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/cli/subcommands/storage/TrieLogHelper.java b/app/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/cli/subcommands/storage/TrieLogHelper.java
index 635c4c52de8..3067c6736eb 100644
--- a/app/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/cli/subcommands/storage/TrieLogHelper.java
+++ b/app/src/main/java/org/hyperledger/besu/cli/subcommands/storage/TrieLogHelper.java
@@ -33,11 +33,7 @@
 import org.hyperledger.besu.ethereum.worldstate.PathBasedExtraStorageConfiguration;
 
 import java.io.File;
-import java.io.FileInputStream;
-import java.io.FileOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
-import java.io.ObjectInputStream;
-import java.io.ObjectOutputStream;
 import java.io.PrintWriter;
 import java.nio.file.Files;
 import java.nio.file.Path;
@@ -153,12 +149,7 @@ private void saveTrieLogBatches(
       final PathBasedWorldStateKeyValueStorage rootWorldStateStorage,
       final List<Hash> trieLogKeys) {
 
-    try {
-      saveTrieLogsInFile(trieLogKeys, rootWorldStateStorage, batchFileName);
-    } catch (IOException e) {
-      LOG.error("Error saving trie logs to file: {}", e.getMessage());
-      throw new RuntimeException(e);
-    }
+    saveTrieLogsAsRlpInFile(trieLogKeys, rootWorldStateStorage, batchFileName);
   }
 
   private void restoreTrieLogBatches(
@@ -166,13 +157,8 @@ private void restoreTrieLogBatches(
       final long batchNumber,
       final String batchFileNameBase) {
 
-    try {
-      LOG.info("Restoring trie logs retained from batch {}...", batchNumber);
-      recreateTrieLogs(rootWorldStateStorage, batchNumber, batchFileNameBase);
-    } catch (IOException e) {
-      LOG.error("Error recreating trie logs from batch {}: {}", batchNumber, e.getMessage());
-      throw new RuntimeException(e);
-    }
+    LOG.info("Restoring trie logs retained from batch {}...", batchNumber);
+    recreateTrieLogs(rootWorldStateStorage, batchNumber, batchFileNameBase);
   }
 
   private boolean deleteFiles(final String batchFileNameBase, final long numberOfBatches) {
@@ -257,11 +243,10 @@ private boolean validatePruneRequirements(
   private void recreateTrieLogs(
       final PathBasedWorldStateKeyValueStorage rootWorldStateStorage,
       final long batchNumber,
-      final String batchFileNameBase)
-      throws IOException {
+      final String batchFileNameBase) {
     // process in chunk to avoid OOM
     final String batchFileName = batchFileNameBase + "-" + batchNumber;
-    IdentityHashMap<byte[], byte[]> trieLogsToRetain = readTrieLogsFromFile(batchFileName);
+    IdentityHashMap<byte[], byte[]> trieLogsToRetain = readTrieLogsAsRlpFromFile(batchFileName);
     final int chunkSize = ROCKSDB_MAX_INSERTS_PER_TRANSACTION;
     List<byte[]> keys = new ArrayList<>(trieLogsToRetain.keySet());
 
@@ -314,43 +299,6 @@ void validatePruneConfiguration(final DataStorageConfiguration config) {
             subStorageConfiguration.getMaxLayersToLoad()));
   }
 
-  private void saveTrieLogsInFile(
-      final List<Hash> trieLogsKeys,
-      final PathBasedWorldStateKeyValueStorage rootWorldStateStorage,
-      final String batchFileName)
-      throws IOException {
-
-    File file = new File(batchFileName);
-    if (file.exists()) {
-      LOG.warn("File already exists {}, skipping file creation", batchFileName);
-      return;
-    }
-
-    try (FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(file)) {
-      ObjectOutputStream oos = new ObjectOutputStream(fos);
-      oos.writeObject(getTrieLogs(trieLogsKeys, rootWorldStateStorage));
-    } catch (IOException e) {
-      LOG.error(e.getMessage());
-      throw new RuntimeException(e);
-    }
-  }
-
-  @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
-  IdentityHashMap<byte[], byte[]> readTrieLogsFromFile(final String batchFileName) {
-
-    IdentityHashMap<byte[], byte[]> trieLogs;
-    try (FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(batchFileName);
-        ObjectInputStream ois = new ObjectInputStream(fis)) {
-
-      trieLogs = (IdentityHashMap<byte[], byte[]>) ois.readObject();
-    } catch (IOException | ClassNotFoundException e) {
-      LOG.error(e.getMessage());
-      throw new RuntimeException(e);
-    }
-
-    return trieLogs;
-  }
-
   private void saveTrieLogsAsRlpInFile(
       final List<Hash> trieLogsKeys,
       final PathBasedWorldStateKeyValueStorage rootWorldStateStorage,
diff --git a/app/src/test/java/org/hyperledger/besu/cli/subcommands/storage/TrieLogHelperTest.java b/app/src/test/java/org/hyperledger/besu/cli/subcommands/storage/TrieLogHelperTest.java
index b1aa8b77050..726c23baf2d 100644
--- a/app/src/test/java/org/hyperledger/besu/cli/subcommands/storage/TrieLogHelperTest.java
+++ b/app/src/test/java/org/hyperledger/besu/cli/subcommands/storage/TrieLogHelperTest.java
@@ -38,7 +38,6 @@
 import org.hyperledger.besu.ethereum.worldstate.ImmutablePathBasedExtraStorageConfiguration;
 import org.hyperledger.besu.metrics.noop.NoOpMetricsSystem;
 
-import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.nio.file.Files;
 import java.nio.file.Path;
@@ -128,6 +127,44 @@ void mockBlockchainBase() {
     when(blockchain.getBlockHeader(any(Hash.class))).thenReturn(Optional.of(blockHeader3));
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void pruneFailsWhenBatchFileContainsJavaSerialization(final @TempDir Path dataDir)
+      throws IOException {
+    Files.createDirectories(dataDir.resolve("database"));
+
+    DataStorageConfiguration dataStorageConfiguration =
+        ImmutableDataStorageConfiguration.builder()
+            .dataStorageFormat(BONSAI)
+            .pathBasedExtraStorageConfiguration(
+                ImmutablePathBasedExtraStorageConfiguration.builder()
+                    .maxLayersToLoad(3L)
+                    .limitTrieLogsEnabled(true)
+                    .build())
+            .build();
+
+    mockBlockchainBase();
+    when(blockchain.getBlockHeader(5)).thenReturn(Optional.of(blockHeader5));
+    when(blockchain.getBlockHeader(4)).thenReturn(Optional.of(blockHeader4));
+    when(blockchain.getBlockHeader(3)).thenReturn(Optional.of(blockHeader3));
+
+    // Pre-place a Java-serialized file at the expected batch file path.
+    // saveTrieLogsAsRlpInFile's exists-check will skip overwriting it.
+    // readTrieLogsAsRlpFromFile will then fail to parse it as RLP during restore,
+    // confirming the code no longer silently deserializes Java-serialized objects.
+    Path batchFile = dataDir.resolve("database").resolve("trieLogsToRetain-1");
+    try (var oos =
+        new java.io.ObjectOutputStream(new java.io.FileOutputStream(batchFile.toFile()))) {
+      oos.writeObject("notrlp");
+    }
+
+    assertThatThrownBy(
+            () ->
+                nonValidatingTrieLogHelper.prune(
+                    dataStorageConfiguration, inMemoryWorldState, blockchain, dataDir))
+        .isInstanceOf(RuntimeException.class)
+        .hasMessageContaining("RLP");
+  }
+
   @Test
   public void prune(final @TempDir Path dataDir) throws IOException {
     Files.createDirectories(dataDir.resolve("database"));
@@ -388,7 +425,7 @@ public void exceptionWhileSavingFileStopsPruneProcess(final @TempDir Path dataDi
                     blockchain,
                     dataDir.resolve("unknownPath")))
         .isInstanceOf(RuntimeException.class)
-        .hasCauseExactlyInstanceOf(FileNotFoundException.class);
+        .hasCauseInstanceOf(java.io.IOException.class);
 
     // assert all trie logs are still in the DB
     assertThat(inMemoryWorldState.getTrieLog(blockHeader1.getHash()).get())