ssh remote host identification has changed [closed] - ssh

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I've reinstalled my server and I am getting these messages:
[user#hostname ~]$ ssh root#pong
###########################################################
# WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED! #
###########################################################
IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING NASTY!
Someone could be eavesdropping on you right now (man-in-the-middle attack)!
It is also possible that a host key has just been changed.
The fingerprint for the RSA key sent by the remote host is
6e:45:f9:a8:af:38:3d:a1:a5:c7:76:1d:02:f8:77:00.
Please contact your system administrator.
Add correct host key in /home/hostname /.ssh/known_hosts to get rid of this message.
Offending RSA key in /var/lib/sss/pubconf/known_hosts:4
RSA host key for pong has changed and you have requested strict checking.
Host key verification failed.
I have tried various solutions that I found on the Internet. My known_hosts file (normally in ~/.ssh/known_hosts) is in /var/lib/sss/pubconf/known_hosts. I've tried to edit it, but it remains in one state. I have installed ipa-client and have Fedora 19. How do I resolve this warning?
All the answers answered so far work only if you do not have Freeipa installed.
The right answer for freeipa in comments below from adrin is here.

Here is the simplest solution:
ssh-keygen -R <host>
For example,
ssh-keygen -R 192.168.3.10
From the ssh-keygen man page:
-R hostname Removes all keys belonging to hostname from a known_hosts file. This option is useful to delete hashed hosts (see the -H option above).

Use
ssh-keygen -R [hostname]
Example with an ip address/hostname would be:
ssh-keygen -R 168.9.9.2
This will update the offending of your host from the known_hosts. You can also provide the path of the known_hosts with -f flag.

I had this same error occur after I recreated a Digital Ocean Ubuntu image. I used the following command with my server IP in place of [IP_ADDRESS]
ssh-keygen -R [IP_ADDRESS]

The sledgehammer is to remove every known host in one fell swoop:
rm ~/.ssh/known_hosts
On Monterey
sudo rm /var/root/.ssh/known_hosts
I come up against this as we use small subnets of short-lived servers from a jump box, and frequently have internal IP address reuse of servers that share the same ssh key.

When you reinstall the server its identity changes, and you'll start to get this message. Ssh has no way of knowing whether you've changed the server it connects to, or a server-in-the-middle has been added to your network to sniff on all your communications - so it brings this to your attention.
Simply remove the key from known_hosts by deleting the relevant entry:
sed '4d' -i /var/lib/sss/pubconf/known_hosts
The 4d is on the account of Offending RSA ...known_hosts:4

The problem is that you've previously accepted an SSH connection to a remote computer and that remote computer's digital fingerprint or SHA256 hash key has changed since you last connected. Thus when you try to SSH again or use github to pull code, which also uses SSH, you get an error. Why? Because you're using the same remote computer address as before but the remote computer is responding with a different fingerprint. Therefore, it's possible that someone is spoofing the computer you previously connected to. This is a security issue.
If you're 100% sure that the remote computer isn't compromised, hacked, being spoofed, etc then all you need to do is delete the entry in your known_hosts file for the remote computer. That will solve the issue as there will no longer be a mismatch with SHA256 fingerprint IDs when connecting.
On Mac here's what I did:
1) Find the line of output that reads RSA host key for servername:port has changed and you have requested strict checking. You'll need both the servername and potentially port from that log output.
2) Back up the SSH known hosts file cp /Users/yourmacusername/.ssh/known_hosts /Users/yourmacusername/.ssh/known_hosts.bak
3) Find the line where the computer's old fingerprint is stored and delete it. You can search for the specific offending remote computer fingerprint using the servername and port from step #1. nano /Users/yourmacusername/.ssh/known_hosts
4) CTRL-X to quit and choose Y to save changes
Now type ssh -p port servername and you will receive the original prompt you did when you first tried to SSH to that computer. You will then be given the option to save that remote computer's updated SHA256 fingerprint to your known_hosts file. If you're using SSH over port 22 then the -p argument is not necessary.
Any issues you can restore the original known_hosts file: cp /Users/yourmacusername/.ssh/known_hosts.bak /Users/yourmacusername/.ssh/known_hosts

As many have already said, use ssh-keygen, i.e.
ssh-keygen -R pong
Also, you may like to consider temporarily turning off host key checking:
ssh -oStrictHostKeyChecking=no root#pong

Works for me!
Error: Offending RSA key in /var/lib/sss/pubconf/known_hosts:4
This indicates you have an offending RSA key at line no. 4
Solution 1:
1. vi /var/lib/sss/pubconf/known_hosts
2. remove line no: 4.
3. Save and Exit, and Retry.
Solution 2:
ssh-keygen -R "you server hostname or ip"
OR
Solution 3:
sed -i '4d' /root/.ssh/known_hosts
This will remove 4th line of /root/.ssh/known_hosts in place(-i).

I used the solution of mockinterface, though the sed -i didn't quite work
I solved it by deleting the line by hand with vim:
sudo vim /var/lib/sss/pubconf/known_hosts
You can use any other text editor you want, but probably you'll need to show your administrative privileges

FINAL Solution!
It is showing due to the stored invalid ECDSA key. So we have to remove the ECDSA key from our master/controller machine by using the below command:
ssh-keygen -R 192.168.0.132
Here 192.168.0.132 is the remote system IP.

Edit /home/hostname /.ssh/known_hosts,and delete the 4 lines, and save it.
Then run ssh root#pong again, you will see message like this:Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes, just print yes.
Note: If you got some problem, read the hints first, it will help.

The other answers here are good and working, anyway, I solved the problem by deleting ~/.ssh/known_hosts. This certainly solves the problem, but it's probably not the best approach.

updated your ssh key, getting the above message is normal.
Just edit ~/.ssh/known_hosts and delete line 4, as the message pointed you
Offending RSA key in /Users/isaacalves/.ssh/known_hosts:4
or use ssh-keygen to delete the invalid key
ssh-keygen -R "you server hostname or ip"

This is because your remote computer settings have changed. Remove your current keys for that.
vim /root/.ssh/known_hosts
Delete the line of the IP you are connecting.

In my case it happened because I previously had ssh connection with a machine with same ip(say 192.152.51.10) and the system was considering the RSA key(stored in /home/user_name/.ssh/known_hosts) of the previous host which resulted in mismatch.
To resolve this issue, you have to remove previously stored RSA key for the ip 192.152.51.10.
ssh-keygen -f "/home/user_name/.ssh/known_hosts" -R 192.152.51.10

Simple one-liner solution, tested on mac:
sed '/212.156.48.110/d' ~/.ssh/known_hosts > ~/.ssh/known_hosts
Deletes only the target ssh host IP from know hosts.
where 212.156.48.110 is replaced by the target host IP address.
Cause: Happened because the target IP was already known for a different machine due to port forwarding. Deleting the target IP before connecting will fix the issue.

I use PowerShell in Windows 10 for ssh.
My problem was in the Windows directory: C:\Users\youruser\.ssh
Delete the file known_hosts in that directory to forget the old value.
You may also use use File Explorer to locate and delete the file.

If you are trying to connect to running docker container on port 2222 with the command and you get the error
mian#tdowrick2~$ ssh pos#localhost -p 2222
Then to solve this problem, on your local computer (i.e. host machine not container) go to cd ~/.ssh/ and open known_hosts file with text editor. Remove the line starting with [localhost]:2222 and save the file. Now try to ssh again
mian#tdowrick2~$ ssh pos#localhost -p 2222
Error will disappear but you have to do it each time the container restart.

My solution is:
vi ~/.ssh/known_hosts
delete the line that contains your want connected ip.
This is better than delete all of the known_hosts

Remove that the entry from known_hosts using:
ssh-keygen -R *ip_address_or_hostname*
This will remove the problematic IP or hostname from known_hosts file and try to connect again.
From the man pages:
-R hostname
Removes all keys belonging to hostname from a known_hosts file. This option is useful to delete hashed hosts (see the -H option
above).

Sometimes, if for any reason, you need to reinstall a server, when connecting by ssh we will find that you server say that the identification has changed.
If we know that it is not an attack, but that we have reinstated the system, we can remove the old identification from the known_hosts using ssh-keygen:
ssh-keygen -R <host/ip:hostname>
root/.ssh/known_hosts updated.
Original contents retained as /root/.ssh/known_hosts.old
When connecting again we will ask you to validate the new fingerprint:
ssh -l user <host/ip:hostname>
The authenticity of host '<host/ip:hostname>' can't
be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 3f:3d:a0:bb:59:24:35:6d:e5:a0:1a:3f:9c:86:81:90.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes

Use this command:
truncate -s 0 /home/SYSTEM_NAME/.ssh/known_hosts

I had this problem, and the reason is very simple, I have a duplicated IP address to ssh login, so after modify this problem, everthing is solved.

Only client side problem(duplicate key for ip):
Solve variants:
For clear one ip(default port 22):
ssh-keygen -f -R 7.7.7.7
For one ip(non default port):
ssh-keygen -f -R 7.7.7.7:333
Fast clear all ips:
cd ~; rm .ssh/known_hosts
7.7.7.7 - ssh your server ip connect
333 - non standart port

Just do:
cd /home/user/.ssh/ -> here user will be your username, i.e. /home/jon/ for example.
Then
gedit known_hosts & and delete the contents inside it.
Now ssh again, it should work.

I had the same error in my machine, and I clear the known_hosts file, and after that, it works fine.

Simply clear the known_hosts which is present in /home/{username}/.ssh/known_hosts
vi /home/{username}/.ssh/known_hosts
remove every line inside known hosts and exit after that you will be able to login.
OR
run this command
ssh-keygen -R "hostname/ip_address"

SOLUTION:
1- delete from "$HOME/.ssh/known_hosts" the line referring to the host towards which is impossible to connect.
2- execute this command: ssh-keygen -R "IP_ADDRESSorHOSTNAME" (substitute "IP_ADDRESSorHOSTNAME" with your destination ip or destination hostname)
3- Retry ssh connection (if it fails please check permission on .ssh directory, it has to be 700)

My solution on UBUNTU (linux):
1.You have to delete the content from "known_hosts" file which is in "/home/YOUR_USERNAME/.ssh/known_hosts"
2.Generate a new ssh key like "ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "your.email#example.com" -b 4096"
3.Copy-paste your new ssh key in your git repository (gitlab in my case) SSH keys.
It works for me !

AWS EC2.
Find the ip in the message it gives you.
run
vim /home/ec2-user/.ssh/known_hosts
Use the arrow keys to find the ip from the message and click.
dd
This will delete that line then run escape
:wp
This will save then you are good to go.

Related

PyCharm says remote host ID has changed, but ssh-keyscan does not

This morning PyCharm started warning me:
Warning: remote host identification has changed! IT IS
POSSIBLE THAT SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING
NASTY! Someone could be eavesdropping on you
right now (man-in-the-middle-attack)! It is also
possible that the host key has just been changed. The
fingerprint for the ssh-ed25519 key sent by the
remote host is
[redacted A]
Do you want to update the key in
/Users/[myhome]/.ssh/known_hosts and resume
connecting?
Then it asks if I want to change ~/Users/[myhome]/.ssh/known_hosts.
The target host is used as an sftp to transfer my code to the remote server. Its name is an alias for two data transfer nodes. I can look at their ssh public keys using ssh-keyscan -t ed25519 alias.remotehost.com and I get a key that matches the one in my known_hosts file. I can also connect to a different remote server, at which time I do not get a warning about changed ssh keys, and ssh-keyscan the original remote host and I get the same keys in known_hosts.
The key that PyCharm says is new does not match any of the now twice confirmed ssh keys. The format of the PyCharm-message-derived key is even totally different from the keys from ssh-keyscan.
What is going on? I don't want to just blast through a security warning, and I'd like some guidance on where to look to see why PyCharm is giving me this warning that I cannot confirm otherwise.
The reason is not necessarily a security issue. Did you double-check your SSH configuration, in particular the known_hosts file used by PyCharm is the same you're checking?
https://man.openbsd.org/ssh_config#UserKnownHostsFile
You may want to take a look at the PyCharm SSH Configurations ... Connection Parameters; for example the different format you're seeing might be related to storing hosts in hash format option (to be confirmed):
https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/settings-tools-ssh-configurations.html
You can try to recreate a SSH configuration from scratch as described here:
https://www.jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/create-ssh-configurations.html
If you're 100% sure that the key in the known_hosts file is the right one and matches your target server's, this will remove the entry in known_hosts file and you should be again prompted to accept the server key on the next connection:
ssh-keygen -R <host>
(where host is your target server, IP or hostname: "alias.remotehost.com" in your example; you can provide the path for the file using -f <path>)
References
ssh remote host identification has changed
https://stackabuse.com/how-to-fix-warning-remote-host-identification-has-changed-on-mac-and-linux/
https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/CPP-19720

Remote host Identification has changed

I try to copy a file to my remote server with scp.
sudo scp atlassian-jira-6.4-x64.bin username#ip-adress:/
When I execute, I get the error:
WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED!
IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING NASTY!
Someone could be eavesdropping on you right now (man-in-the-middle attack)!
It is also possible that a host key has just been changed.
The fingerprint for the RSA key sent by the remote host is
(fingerprint)
Please contact your system administrator.
Add correct host key in /var/root/.ssh/known_hosts to get rid of this message.
Offending RSA key in /var/root/.ssh/known_hosts:1
RSA host key for IPADRESS has changed and you have requested strict checking.
Host key verification failed.
So I removed the known_hosts file from ~/.ssh and tried the command again. But still there is this message coming up. Where do I need to modify my files then besides the .ssh folder?
Edit the known_host file under following directory using vim editor on terminal.
vi /var/root/.ssh/known_hosts OR /root/.ssh/known_hosts
delete all lines using dd command and save the known_hosts file using :wq! and restart your sshd service.
service sshd restart
In case if the problem is repetitive, you can try to use this method.
Add the following lines to the beginning of the SSH configuration file.
Host *
StrictHostKeyChecking no
UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null
or for a specific host
Host localhost
HostName localhost
UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null
StrictHostKeyChecking=no

How can I force ssh to accept a new host fingerprint from the command line?

I'm getting the standard
WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED!
IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING NASTY!
Someone could be eavesdropping on you right now (man-in-the-middle attack)!
It is also possible that the RSA host key has just been changed.
The fingerprint for the RSA key sent by the remote host is
error message. However, the system (Appworx) that executes the command (sftp I think, not that it matters) is automated and I can't easily accept the new key, even after checking with the third party vendor that it is a valid change. I can add a new shell script that I can execute from the same system (and user), but there doesn't seem to be a command or command-line argument that will tell ssh to accept the key. I can't find anything in the man page or on Google. Surely this is possible?
The answers here are terrible advice. You should never turn off StrictHostKeyChecking in any real-world system (e.g. it's probably okay if you're just playing on your own local home network – but for anything else don't do it).
Instead use:
ssh-keygen -R hostname
That will force the known_hosts file to be updated to remove the old key for just the one server that has updated its key.
Then when you use:
ssh user#hostname
It will ask you to confirm the fingerprint – as it would for any other "new" (i.e. previously unseen) server.
While common wisdom is not to disable host key checking, there is a built-in option in SSH itself to do this. It is relatively unknown, since it's new (added in Openssh 6.5).
This is done with -o StrictHostKeyChecking=accept-new.
WARNING: use this only if you absolutely trust the IP\hostname you are going to SSH to:
ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=accept-new mynewserver.example.com
Note, StrictHostKeyChecking=no will add the public key to ~/.ssh/known_hosts even if the key was changed.
accept-new is only for new hosts. From the man page:
If this flag is set to “accept-new” then ssh will automatically add
new host keys to the user known hosts files, but will not permit
connections to hosts with changed host keys. If this flag
is set to “no” or “off”, ssh will automatically add new host keys
to the user known hosts files and allow connections to hosts with
changed hostkeys to proceed, subject to some restrictions.
If this flag is set to ask (the default), new host keys will be
added to the user known host files only after the user has confirmed
that is what they really want to do, and ssh will refuse to
connect to hosts whose host key has changed.
The host keys of known hosts will be verified automatically in all cases.
Why -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no is evil?
When you do not check the host key you might land with an SSH session on a different computer (yes, this is possible with IP Hijacking). A hostile server, which you don't own can be then used to steal a password and all sort of data.
Accepting a new unknown key is also pretty dangerous.
One should only do it if there is an absolute trust in the network or that the server was not compromised.
Personally, I use this flag only when I boot machines in a cloud environment with cloud-init immediately after the machine started.
Here's how to tell your client to trust the key. A better approach is to give it the key in advance, which I've described in the second paragraph. This is for an OpenSSH client on Unix, so I hope it's relevant to your situation.
You can set the StrictHostKeyChecking parameter. It has options yes, no, and ask. The default is ask. To set it system wide, edit /etc/ssh/ssh_config; to set it just for you, edit ~/.ssh/config; and to set it for a single command, give the option on the command line, e.g.
ssh -o "StrictHostKeyChecking no" hostname
An alternative approach if you have access to the host keys for the remote system is to add them to your known_hosts file in advance, so that SSH knows about them and won't ask the question. If this is possible, it's better from a security point of view. After all, the warning might be right and you really might be subject to a man-in-the-middle attack.
For instance, here's a script that will retrieve the key and add it to your known_hosts file:
ssh -o 'StrictHostKeyChecking no' hostname cat /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key.pub >>~/.ssh/known_hosts
Since you are trying to automate this by running a bash script on the host that is doing the ssh-ing, and assuming that:
You don't want to ignore host keys because that's an additional security risk.
Host keys on the host you're ssh-ing to rarely change, and if they do there's a good, well-known reason such as "the target host got rebuilt"
You want to run this script once to add the new key to known_hosts, then leave known_hosts alone.
Try this in your bash script:
# Remove old key
ssh-keygen -R $target_host
# Add the new key
ssh-keyscan $target_host >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts
You just have to update the current fingerprint that's being sent from server. Just Type in the following and you'll be good to go :)
ssh-keygen -f "/home/your_user_name/.ssh/known_hosts" -R "server_ip"
Just adding the most 'modern' approach.
Like all other answers - this means you are BLINDLY accepting a key from a host. Use CAUTION!
HOST=hostname ssh-keygen -R $HOST && ssh-keyscan -Ht ed25519 $HOST >> "$HOME/.ssh/known_hosts"
First remove any entry using -R, and then generate a hashed (-H) known_hosts entry which we append to the end of the file.
As with this answer prefer ed25519.
Get a list of SSH host IPs (or DNS name) output to a file > ssh_hosts
Run a one-liner to populate the ~/.ssh/known_hosts on the control node (often do this to prepare target nodes for Ansible run)
NOTE: Assume we prefer ed25519 type of host key
# add the target hosts key fingerprints
while read -r line; do ssh-keyscan -t ed25519 $line >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts; done<ssh_hosts
# add the SSH Key('s) public bit to target hosts `authorized_keys` file
while read -r line; do ssh-copy-id -i /path/to/key -f user#$line; done<ssh_hosts
ssh -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null user#host
Add following file
~/.ssh/config
and this in the file as content
StrictHostKeyChecking no
This setting will make sure that ssh will never ask for fingerprint check again.
This should be added very carefully as this would be really dangerous and allow to access all fingerprints.

SSH error in connection to a new Domain

I was already able to connect to the server via ssh properly. But recently after changing the server fixed-IP address and domain name, I cannot connect to the server by DNS name. Despite, I can ssh to the server with its IP address. The error of ssh with domain name is the following:
###########################################################
# WARNING: POSSIBLE DNS SPOOFING DETECTED! #
###########################################################
The DSA host key for example.com has changed,
and the key for the corresponding IP address X.X.X.X
has a different value. This could either mean that
DNS SPOOFING is happening or the IP address for the host
and its host key have changed at the same time.
Offending key for IP in /home/.ssh/known_hosts:10
remove with: ssh-keygen -f "/home/.ssh/known_hosts" -R X.X.X.X
###########################################################
# WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED! #
###########################################################
IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING NASTY!
Someone could be eavesdropping on you right now (man-in-the-middle attack)!
It is also possible that a host key has just been changed.
The fingerprint for the DSA key sent by the remote host is
*:*:*:*:*:....
Please contact your system administrator.
Add correct host key in /home/.ssh/known_hosts to get rid of this message.
Offending DSA key in /home/.ssh/known_hosts:11
remove with: ssh-keygen -f "/home/.ssh/known_hosts" -R example.com
DSA host key for example.com has changed and you have requested strict checking.
Host key verification failed.
The answer is in the question:
ssh-keygen -f "/home/.ssh/known_hosts" -R example.com
You will get more info on the first google hit for the big message. WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED!
You should remove line 10 from your known_hosts because the system signalized you about the problem
Offending key for IP in /home/.ssh/known_hosts:10
I moved my ~/.ssh/known_hosts file and retried it worked. I guess the effect will just confirmation prompt for future connections, for the hosts that are there in known_hosts
I encountered the same problem.
I think the problem is that the item recorded in the "known-hosts" does not match something of the remote host(sorry, I don't know what the something is).
In my case, I just deleted the item in "known-hosts" according to the IP address of the remote host and ran ssh command again. Then it worked.
If you have got a backup of your /etc/ssh directory and want to restore it, just use
ssh -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no user#hostname
for connecting once without checking.
Source: ssh man page
I faced same problem when I tried to do a pull.
Fix:
I deleted .ssh/known_hosts file on my system and retried pull, it worked.
Why this happened:
We had a gitlab migration. known_host file store gitlab ip, so it was not able to establish connectivity with existing host.
Just follow what is suggested.
sudo ssh-keygen -f "/root/.ssh/known_hosts" -R ip
sudo ssh-keygen -f "/root/.ssh/known_hosts" -R host
These commands will remove old fingerprints, and then you will be asked:
The authenticity of host 'host (ip)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:YrD+1E4JmdeObwEyQW3zGqNhXE//64MMZrHHaInE7w0.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?
Write "yes" and you will see such message:
Warning: Permanently added 'host,ip' (ECDSA)
to the list of known hosts.
This will create new fingerprint in the /root/.ssh/known_hosts file.
For me, it couldn't find the file so I had to flip the file path and domain name like so:
ssh-keygen -R example.com -f ~/.ssh/known_hosts
Just delete the known_hosts file
$ rm .ssh/known_hosts
$ ssh ras.mydomain.com
Try connecting with ssh again
ssh username#server-ip-here

ssh: The authenticity of host 'hostname' can't be established

When i ssh to a machine, sometime i get this error warning and it prompts to say "yes" or "no". This cause some trouble when running from scripts that automatically ssh to other machines.
Warning Message:
The authenticity of host '<host>' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:TER0dEslggzS/BROmiE/s70WqcYy6bk52fs+MLTIptM.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added 'pc' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
Is there a way to automatically say "yes" or ignore this?
Depending on your ssh client, you can set the StrictHostKeyChecking option to no on the command line, and/or send the key to a null known_hosts file. You can also set these options in your config file, either for all hosts or for a given set of IP addresses or host names.
ssh -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no
EDIT
As #IanDunn notes, there are security risks to doing this. If the resource you're connecting to has been spoofed by an attacker, they could potentially replay the destination server's challenge back to you, fooling you into thinking that you're connecting to the remote resource while in fact they are connecting to that resource with your credentials. You should carefully consider whether that's an appropriate risk to take on before altering your connection mechanism to skip HostKeyChecking.
Reference.
Old question that deserves a better answer.
You can prevent interactive prompt without disabling StrictHostKeyChecking (which is insecure).
Incorporate the following logic into your script:
if [ -z "$(ssh-keygen -F $IP)" ]; then
ssh-keyscan -H $IP >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts
fi
It checks if public key of the server is in known_hosts. If not, it requests public key from the server and adds it to known_hosts.
In this way you are exposed to Man-In-The-Middle attack only once, which may be mitigated by:
ensuring that the script connects first time over a secure channel
inspecting logs or known_hosts to check fingerprints manually (to be done only once)
To disable (or control disabling), add the following lines to the beginning of /etc/ssh/ssh_config...
Host 192.168.0.*
StrictHostKeyChecking=no
UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null
Options:
The Host subnet can be * to allow unrestricted access to all IPs.
Edit /etc/ssh/ssh_config for global configuration or ~/.ssh/config for user-specific configuration.
See http://linuxcommando.blogspot.com/2008/10/how-to-disable-ssh-host-key-checking.html
Similar question on superuser.com - see https://superuser.com/a/628801/55163
Make sure ~/.ssh/known_hosts is writable. That fixed it for me.
The best way to go about this is to use 'BatchMode' in addition to 'StrictHostKeyChecking'. This way, your script will accept a new hostname and write it to the known_hosts file, but won't require yes/no intervention.
ssh -o BatchMode=yes -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no user#server.example.com "uptime"
This warning is issued due the security features, do not disable this feature.
It's just displayed once.
If it still appears after second connection, the problem is probably in writing to the known_hosts file.
In this case you'll also get the following message:
Failed to add the host to the list of known hosts
You may fix it by changing owner of changing the permissions of the file to be writable by your user.
sudo chown -v $USER ~/.ssh/known_hosts
Edit your config file normally located at '~/.ssh/config', and at the beggining of the file, add the below lines
Host *
User your_login_user
StrictHostKeyChecking no
IdentityFile ~/my_path/id_rsa.pub
User set to your_login_user says that this settings belongs to your_login_user
StrictHostKeyChecking set to no will avoid the prompt
IdentityFile is path to RSA key
This works for me and my scripts, good luck to you.
Ideally, you should create a self-managed certificate authority. Start with generating a key pair:
ssh-keygen -f cert_signer
Then sign each server's public host key:
ssh-keygen -s cert_signer -I cert_signer -h -n www.example.com -V +52w /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key.pub
This generates a signed public host key:
/etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key-cert.pub
In /etc/ssh/sshd_config, point the HostCertificate to this file:
HostCertificate /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key-cert.pub
Restart the sshd service:
service sshd restart
Then on the SSH client, add the following to ~/.ssh/known_hosts:
#cert-authority *.example.com ssh-rsa AAAAB3Nz...cYwy+1Y2u/
The above contains:
#cert-authority
The domain *.example.com
The full contents of the public key cert_signer.pub
The cert_signer public key will trust any server whose public host key is signed by the cert_signer private key.
Although this requires a one-time configuration on the client side, you can trust multiple servers, including those that haven't been provisioned yet (as long as you sign each server, that is).
For more details, see this wiki page.
Do this -> chmod +w ~/.ssh/known_hosts. This adds write permission to the file at ~/.ssh/known_hosts. After that the remote host will be added to the known_hosts file when you connect to it the next time.
With reference to Cori's answer, I modified it and used below command, which is working. Without exit, remaining command was actually logging to remote machine, which I didn't want in script
ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no user#ip_of_remote_machine "exit"
Add these to your /etc/ssh/ssh_config
Host *
UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null
StrictHostKeyChecking=no
Generally this problem occurs when you are modifying the keys very oftenly. Based on the server it might take some time to update the new key that you have generated and pasted in the server. So after generating the key and pasting in the server, wait for 3 to 4 hours and then try. The problem should be solved. It happened with me.
The following steps are used to authenticate yourself to the host
Generate a ssh key. You will be asked to create a password for the key
ssh-keygen -f ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa -t ecdsa -b 521
(above uses the recommended encryption technique)
Copy the key over to the remote host
ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa user#host
N.B the user # host will be different to you. You will need to type in the password for this server, not the keys password.
You can now login to the server securely and not get an error message.
ssh user#host
All source information is located here:
ssh-keygen
For anyone who finds this and is simply looking to prevent the prompt on first connection, but still wants ssh to strictly check the key on subsequent connections (trust on first use), you can set StrictHostKeyChecking to accept-new in ~/.ssh/config, which will do what you're looking for. You can read more about it in man ssh_config. I strongly discourage disabling key checking altogether.
Run this in host server it's premonition issue
chmod -R 700 ~/.ssh
I had the same error and wanted to draw attention to the fact that - as it just happened to me - you might just have wrong privileges.You've set up your .ssh directory as either regular or root user and thus you need to be the correct user. When this error appeared, I was root but I configured .ssh as regular user. Exiting root fixed it.
This is trying to establish password-less authentication. So, if you try to run that command manually once, it will ask to provide the password there. After entering password, it saves that password permanently, and it will never ask again to type 'yes' or 'no'.
For me the reason is that I have wrong permission on ~/.ssh/known_hosts.
I have no write permission on known_hosts file. So it ask me again and again.
In my case, the host was unkown and instead of typing yes to the question are you sure you want to continue connecting(yes/no/[fingerprint])? I was just hitting enter .
I solve the issue which gives below written error:
Error:
The authenticity of host 'XXX.XXX.XXX' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 09:6c:ef:cd:55:c4:4f:ss:5a:88:46:0a:a9:27:83:89.
Solution:
1. install any openSSH tool.
2. run command ssh
3. it will ask for do u add this host like.
accept YES.
4. This host will add in the known host list.
5. Now you are able to connect with this host.
This solution is working now......