sqlmapproject/sqlmap · error · SqlmapSyntaxException

option '--cookie-del' should contain a single character…

Error message

option '--cookie-del' should contain a single character (e.g. ';')

What it means

Startup value-validation guard in _basicOptionValidation: the cookie delimiter from --cookie-del (conf.cookieDel) is checked with len(...) == 1; the error fires when the value has more than one character (or is empty), since sqlmap splits the Cookie header on a single separator.

Solutions

1. Pass exactly one character, e.g. --cookie-del=';'
2. Remove --cookie-del to use the default ',' separator
3. If the delimiter appears escaped in your shell, quote the argument properly

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at lib/core/option.py:2946 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of sqlmapproject/sqlmap@0a35b20e39 (2026-08-26). Data as JSON: /api/errors/df0601ebab8e3340. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at lib/core/option.py:2946

    if conf.retryOn:
        try:
            re.compile(conf.retryOn)
        except Exception as ex:
            errMsg = "invalid regular expression '%s' ('%s')" % (conf.retryOn, getSafeExString(ex))
            raise SqlmapSyntaxException(errMsg)

        if conf.retries == defaults.retries:
            conf.retries = 5 * conf.retries

            warnMsg = "increasing default value for "
            warnMsg += "option '--retries' to %d because " % conf.retries
            warnMsg += "option '--retry-on' was provided"
            logger.warning(warnMsg)

    if conf.cookieDel and len(conf.cookieDel) != 1:
        errMsg = "option '--cookie-del' should contain a single character (e.g. ';')"
        raise SqlmapSyntaxException(errMsg)

    if conf.crawlExclude:
        try:
            re.compile(conf.crawlExclude)
        except Exception as ex:
            errMsg = "invalid regular expression '%s' ('%s')" % (conf.crawlExclude, getSafeExString(ex))
            raise SqlmapSyntaxException(errMsg)

    if conf.scope:
        try:
            re.compile(conf.scope)
        except Exception as ex:
            errMsg = "invalid regular expression '%s' ('%s')" % (conf.scope, getSafeExString(ex))
            raise SqlmapSyntaxException(errMsg)

    if conf.dumpTable and conf.dumpAll:
        errMsg = "switch '--dump' is incompatible with switch '--dump-all'"
        raise SqlmapSyntaxException(errMsg)

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