How to provide password to sqlite3.exe? - sqlite

Question

I have a sqlite database that I want to open using sqlite3.exe. Now I get an error when I try to make queries, saying "file is encrypted or is not a database". This may seem stupid but I've been looking around on internet and I just don't find how to supply a password (or key) to sqlite3.exe to decrypt the database. The -help option or .help command of sqlite3.exe don't show anything to do that... Is it possible to do that, and if so how can I do it?

Answer 1

It is unlikely that the database would be encrypted, unless you have a reason to believe it is. Are you able to open the database at all, or are you getting this error once you issue some SQL query? If it's the former, your file is probably either not an sqlite db to begin with, or it is corrupted; if it's the latter, please check the integrity of your db with:
pragma integrity_check;
See http://www.sqlite.org/pragma.html#pragma_integrity_check for more info about this pragma.
In any case, unless your db is really encrypted (which sqlite does not support natively), your db is probably unusable.

Answer 2

SQLite reports that error when you pass it a file which is either not actually a SQLite database, or alternatively has been corrupted. There are several SQLite addons to support encryption, but other than that SQLite doesn't have encryption.
It can also happen when you try and open a SQLite v3 database with SQLite v2 (and possibly for other version mismatches).
Assuming you have experienced corruption (and not just passing the wrong file, or using the wrong version of SQLite), you may want to check the PRAGMA synchronous settings you're using, and also review the list of fixed data-corrupting bugs.

Answer 3

Checkout this this forum here. The guy had the same question as you. The thing is that there is not any form of protection offered as a standard package in sqlite3 API, but you can try System.Data.SQLite. These are the codes posted on the forum:
#include <SQLite.au3> don't include sqlite.dll.au3 !!!
_SQLite_Startup ("System.Data.SQLite.dll")
ConsoleWrite(_SQLite_LibVersion() & #LF)
_SQLite_Open("testcrypt.db")
_SQLite_Exec(-1, "pragma key = 'Radu is happy!';create table if not exists test (id integer, val text);" & _
"insert into test values (1, 'abc');")
Local $row
_SQLite_QuerySingleRow(-1, "select * from test;", $row)
ConsoleWrite($row[1] & #LF)
_SQLite_Close()
_SQLite_Shutdown()
hope that helps.