Issues opening a database using SQLCipher

[ManuelRauber]

Hi,

here's my setup:

• Flutter 3.29.3
• iOS 18.4
• sqlcipher_flutter_libs: ^0.6.6
• sqlite3: ^2.7.5

Code sample:

Future main() async {
  WidgetsFlutterBinding.ensureInitialized();

  final applicationDocumentsDirectory = await getApplicationDocumentsDirectory();
  final dbPath = path.join(applicationDocumentsDirectory.path, 'MyDb.sqlite');

  final db = sqlite3.open(dbPath);

  final cipherVersion = db.select('PRAGMA cipher_version;');

  for (final row in cipherVersion) {
    print(row);
  }

  if (db.select('PRAGMA cipher_version;').isEmpty) {
    // Make sure that we're actually using SQLCipher, since the pragma used to encrypt
    // databases just fails silently with regular sqlite3 (meaning that we'd accidentally
    // use plaintext databases).
    throw StateError('SQLCipher library is not available, please check your dependencies!');
  }

  // Set the encryption key for the database
  db.execute("PRAGMA key = '<pw>;");
  final result = db.select("SELECT count(*) as cnt FROM sqlite_master;");

  for (final row in result) {
    print(row['cnt']);
  }

  db.dispose();

The print of row['cnt'] is always 0:

flutter: {cipher_version: 4.8.0 community}
flutter: 0

When I open the database locally using the sqlcipher binary (version 4.6.1) or in JetBrains DataGrip, I can successfully open the database and run the SELECT statement returning the correct number of rows.

The password only contains letters and numbers, no special characters.

I'm unsure what I could do at the moment to open the same database via Dart/Flutter.

Any tip is appreciated!

[simolus3]

The print of row['cnt'] is always 0:

Is this unexpected? If you've just created the database, there aren't any tables or other elements in sqlite_master that could be returned. If selecting from that table doesn't throw, the key was set correctly (which is the only thing that select statement is typically trying to accomplish).

[ManuelRauber]

The print of row['cnt'] is always 0:

Is this unexpected? If you've just created the database, there aren't any tables or other elements in sqlite_master that could be returned. If selecting from that table doesn't throw, the key was set correctly (which is the only thing that select statement is typically trying to accomplish).

Yes, the 0 is unexpected.

When I open the exact same database via sqlcipher binary, I get 74.

When I use another key, the command throws, so you're right about that the key is set correctly.

However, I cannot explain that with the correct key I don't get the same result.

[simolus3]

You don't depend on sqlite_flutter_libs right? It's possible that another native dependency is linking SQLite, which can cause incompatibilities. You could try adding this snippet to stop most other pods from linking SQLite which might help.