diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 908da71cdc8..e24294d8135 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -462,6 +462,7 @@ Release 0.92.0 - Unreleased
                lots of regions
    HBASE-5077  SplitLogWorker fails to let go of a task, kills the RS
    HBASE-5096  Replication does not handle deletes correctly. (Lars H)
+   HBASE-5103  Fix improper master znode deserialization (Jonathan Hsieh)
 
   TESTS
    HBASE-4450  test for number of blocks read: to serve as baseline for expected
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/ActiveMasterManager.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/ActiveMasterManager.java
index c46d5b29be6..2f60b23165a 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/ActiveMasterManager.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/ActiveMasterManager.java
@@ -204,7 +204,7 @@ class ActiveMasterManager extends ZooKeeperListener {
       byte [] bytes =
         ZKUtil.getDataAndWatch(watcher, watcher.masterAddressZNode);
       // TODO: redo this to make it atomic (only added for tests)
-      ServerName master = new ServerName(Bytes.toString(bytes));
+      ServerName master = ServerName.parseVersionedServerName(bytes);
       if (master != null &&  master.equals(this.sn)) {
         ZKUtil.deleteNode(watcher, watcher.masterAddressZNode);
       }
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/zookeeper/ZKUtil.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/zookeeper/ZKUtil.java
index 157bffaf2a6..111f76e5ec1 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/zookeeper/ZKUtil.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/zookeeper/ZKUtil.java
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
 import org.apache.hadoop.conf.Configuration;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.EmptyWatcher;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.HConstants;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.ServerName;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.executor.RegionTransitionData;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.Bytes;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.util.Threads;
@@ -1034,7 +1035,7 @@ public class ZKUtil {
     try {
       sb.append("HBase is rooted at ").append(zkw.baseZNode);
       sb.append("\nMaster address: ").append(
-          Bytes.toStringBinary(getData(zkw, zkw.masterAddressZNode)));
+          ServerName.parseVersionedServerName(getData(zkw, zkw.masterAddressZNode)));
       sb.append("\nRegion server holding ROOT: ").append(
           Bytes.toStringBinary(getData(zkw, zkw.rootServerZNode)));
       sb.append("\nRegion servers:");