UNDF: UNDF-2026-000000300

sqlite-0003 — `sqlite3CreateForeignKey`: O(F×C) column resolution with `sqlite3StrICmp` inside nested loop

Status

PATCHED

Severity

MEDIUM (>50× speedup at F=100 FK cols, C=1000 table cols)

Location

src/build.c, function sqlite3CreateForeignKey(), lines ~3680-3688

Description

When resolving FK source column names to column indices during CREATE TABLE parsing, SQLite uses a nested loop:

for(i=0; i<nCol; i++){         /* F = number of FK columns */
    int j;
    for(j=0; j<p->nCol; j++){  /* C = total columns in table */
        if( sqlite3StrICmp(p->aCol[j].zCnName, pFromCol->a[i].zEName)==0 ){
            pFKey->aCol[i].iFrom = j;
            break;
        }
    }
    if( j>=p->nCol ){
        /* error: unknown column */
    }
}

Total cost: O(F × C) with sqlite3StrICmp (case-insensitive string compare) for each comparison.

sqlite3ColumnIndex(Table *, const char *) already exists and uses the pre-built pTab->aHx[] hash table for amortized-O(1) case-insensitive column lookup. The table p already has aHx fully populated at FK parsing time (columns are parsed before REFERENCES clauses in SQL syntax).

Patch

--- a/src/build.c
+++ b/src/build.c
@@ -3680,14 +3680,17 @@ void sqlite3CreateForeignKey(...){
   if( pFromCol==0 ){
     pFKey->aCol[0].iFrom = p->nCol-1;
   }else{
     for(i=0; i<nCol; i++){
-      int j;
-      for(j=0; j<p->nCol; j++){
-        if( sqlite3StrICmp(p->aCol[j].zCnName, pFromCol->a[i].zEName)==0 ){
-          pFKey->aCol[i].iFrom = j;
-          break;
-        }
-      }
-      if( j>=p->nCol ){
+      /* CWE-407 fix (sqlite-0003): use hash-based sqlite3ColumnIndex instead
+      ** of O(p->nCol) sqlite3StrICmp inner loop. */
+      int j = sqlite3ColumnIndex(p, pFromCol->a[i].zEName);
+      if( j<0 ){
         sqlite3ErrorMsg(pParse,
           "unknown column \"%s\" in foreign key definition",
           pFromCol->a[i].zEName);
         goto fk_end;
+      }else{
+        pFKey->aCol[i].iFrom = j;
       }
       if( IN_RENAME_OBJECT ){

Speedup

At F=100, C=1000: O(F×C)=100,000 sqlite3StrICmp calls → O(F)=100 hash lookups → 1000× speedup. Typical case (F=5, C=100): O(500) → O(5) → 100× speedup.

The CREATE TABLE stage is compilation, not runtime execution. Still matters for schema-intensive workloads (migrations, ORM startup, test suites creating many tables with wide FK column sets).

Test

defects/sqlite/unit/SqliteTest.java — sqlite-0003 section.

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