Using SQLCipher in Python - the easy way

Question

I'm coding a Python utility that should work on an encrypted SQLite database. Eventually I'll turn such utility into a executable, so it'll be easier to ship to the rest of my team. I read many pages about SQLCipher but they all talk about compiling stuff and installing in Windows - really, I have a hard time at fully understand that, it seems like they take some steps for granted and I get lost.

Where can I find a detailed, step-by-step guide that allows me to have Python code that works properly on an encrypted SQLite database, with no system dependencies, and then such code is compilable into an exe (with pyinstaller)? Even having an exe and a dll would be fine.

Thanks for your help.

PS: I think that the exe + dll is a viable option because DB Browser for SQLite (https://github.com/sqlitebrowser/sqlitebrowser) ships with that very dll. Maybe it's re-usable?

Answer 1

I was able to copy the ssleay32.dll, libeay32.dll, and sqlcipher.dll in to the Python38\DLLs folder. I then renamed sqlite3.dll to sqlite3.dll.old. sqlcipher.dll needs to be renamed to sqlite3.dll. Then call it like you would for sqlite.

For Linux

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install python3-pip python3-dev build-essential libssl-dev libffi-dev python3-setuptools
sudo apt-get install libsqlcipher-dev
sudo apt install build-essential git cmake libsqlite3-dev
sudo apt install sqlcipher
git clone https://github.com/rigglemania/pysqlcipher3
cd pysqlcipher3
python3 setup.py build
sudo python3 setup.py install

if installing in virtual environment also do
pip install pysqlcipher3 in the environment

if sys.platform.lower() == 'linux':
  try:
     from pysqlcipher3 import dbapi2 as sqlite3
  except:
     import sqlite3