sqlcipher command line not working

Question

I have a encrypted sqlite db and its key. (Which is generated by an android program). However, when I open the db in command line I can not read the db. The command line tool is installed by:

brew install sqlcipher

I open the database by:

sqlcipher EnDB.db
>pragma key="6b74fcd";
>select * from bizinfo;

It keeps telling me "Error: file is encrypted or is not a database"

However, if I open the database file with gui app sqlite database browser (which is a windows program and I run it in wine). It pops up a window for me to enter the key, with 6b74fcd as the key it successfully read the database.

sqlite database browser

As I want to automatically process the db in the future, I can not depend on the GUI. Do you know why the command line is not working?

can you tell us where you got this version of sqlite browser from? Because the version at http://sqlitebrowser.org/ does not support encrypted databases. — Vinay W, Aug 04 '14 at 06:48
@VinayWadhwa http://valentin.dasdeck.com/xtras/sqlite_xtra/win/tools/ — Min Lin, Aug 04 '14 at 10:49
Thanks, also - you might want to try to decrypt the database permanently - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/25132477/how-to-decrypt-an-encrypted-sqlcipher-database-file-on-command-line/25132478#25132478 — Vinay W, Aug 05 '14 at 06:38
how did you encrypted the db using sqlcipher? is there any tutorial? if possible please take a look at this: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/62229318/how-to-encrypt-a-sqlite-database-using-sqlcipher — Taba, Jun 06 '20 at 18:14

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 26 '13 at 04:29

6

Solved already!

after

pragma key="6b74fcd";

Call this:

pragma cipher_use_hmac=off;

Then everything works like a charm. It seems the database is a 1.x database.

answered Oct 26 '13 at 04:29

Min Lin

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I am also getting the exact same situation but this solution unfortunately didn't work for me. How did you work out the database was V 1.x? – JKennedy Jan 10 '18 at 16:04
Use also PRAGMA cipher_migrate; – Alexandr May 26 '22 at 18:53

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 22 '23 at 16:08

Since I had to go through some trouble with a similar issue, here's what helped in my case.

After opening the database in the Terminal via

sqlcipher mydatabase.db

I made sure the compatibility was given

PRAGMA cipher_default_compatibility = 1;

Then I provided the key

PRAGMA key='theKey';

Now, I could use SQL statements like

SELECT * FROM myTable;

Obviously, make sure that things like "mydatabase.db", "theKey" and "myTable" are replaced with your individual database name, key and table name.

sqlcipher command line not working

2 Answers2