SQLite doesn't control RedHat (or any other distro's) SQLite version inclusions - it's something you need to confirm with the maintainers. I will say this: Updating the SQLite in your distro is very simple and perfectly fine to do if you are the intended user only. If you mean to distribute your software on RedHat expecting that it would work, you have a bigger problems, but there is always the option of compiling-in the sqlite code into whatever you are compiling and/or distributing. If you are just trying to make PHP work for your own purposes, it should be simple to update the SQLite and relatively safe, SQLite is extremely backwards compatible. I'd still try this on a non-production environment first. There are examples and how-to's available for any of these which we can list once you decided the direction to go.