Cannot encrypt a database

[Masrur Mahmood]

Hello All,

I'm having a strange problem with SQLCipher where I'm trying to encrypt an existing SQLite3 database. I'm on Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit OS with GCC 4.6.3.

Let me tell you what I've done so far. I compiled SQLCipher as follows:

~/Downloads/sqlcipher: ./configure --enable-tempstore=yes CFLAGS="-DSQLITE_HAS_CODEC" LDFLAGS="-lcrypto" --prefix=/usr

~/Downloads/sqlcipher: make

~/Downloads/sqlcipher: sudo make install

Now, I launch sqlcipher and issue the command (my database name is test.db):

./sqlcipher plaintext.db

sqlite> ATTACH DATABASE 'test.db' AS encrypted KEY 'secret';

Error: file is encrypted or is not a database

There is no information about what the error is. Anyone have any idea? I can open the database and run SQL statements but I'm getting an error when I try to encrypt it.

Please advice.

[Masrur Mahmood]

Sorry meant to say:

./sqlcipher test.db on that line above.

[Nick Parker]

Hello Masrur,

To verify the environment is correct, can you execute "PRAGMA cipher_version;" once you launch the SQLCipher command line shell and provide the output? Thanks

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Nick Parker

[Masrur Mahmood]

When I run the PRAGMA cipher_version, it returns: 3.3.0

[Nick Parker]

Hello Masrur,

You will need to perform the attach to another file, not the existing plain text database if you are trying to perform an export to an encrypted database. You can of course delete the original plain text file and rename the encrypted after the export completes. Please take a look at example 1 for the sqlcipher_export documentation here [1].

[1] https://www.zetetic.net/sqlcipher/sqlcipher-api/#sqlcipher_export

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Nick Parker

[Masrur Mahmood]

Thank you Nick.

From the API documentation, it wasn't clear that we open the unencrypted database and then use those commands that will be used to create to a new encrypted database file. 

It seems to work now.

[Nick Parker]

Hello Masrur,

I am glad to hear everything is working for you now.