SQLite before 3.54.0 contains a stack exhaustion vulnerability that allows attackers to bypass the SQLITE_LIMIT_EXPR_DEPTH limit by chaining COLLATE postfix operators. Attackers can supply roughly 175,000 chained COLLATE operators in SQL or an untrusted database view to trigger unbounded recursion in sqlite3WalkExprNN() and crash the process.
Weakness
The product does not properly control the amount of recursion that takes place, consuming excessive resources, such as allocated memory or the program stack.
Affected Software
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sqlite | Sqlite | * | 3.54.0 (excluding) |
| Sqlite | Ubuntu | upstream | * |
Potential Mitigations
Related Attack Patterns
References
- https://abraxaslabs.tech/research/sqlite-collate-depth
- https://github.com/sqlite/sqlite
- https://github.com/sqlite/sqlite/blob/version-3.53.4/src/expr.c#L175
- https://github.com/sqlite/sqlite/commit/d54522a5b832422ab893a1e9fa7a99ab314ea4e2
- https://sqlite.org/bugs/info/2026-10-04T04:50:56Z
- https://sqlite.org/releaselog/3_54_0.html
- https://sqlite.org/src/info/252c0b7bf5a727d2
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/sqlite-before-3.54.0-stack-exhaustion-via-collate-operator-chain
- https://sqlite.org/bugs/info/2026-10-04T04:50:56Z