When a piston (sticky or normal) is open you can go through the pipe-like object sticking out when you are near the base. The rest of the pile-like that can't be walked through has the same hitbox as a full block.
I have made this bug report private because this bug can be abused in adventure maps.
Linked issues
Comments 3
Duplicate of MC-3004
Sorry, I didn't realise someone already reported this.