Managing Secure Shell Access in Oracle® Solaris 11.2

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Updated: September 2014
 
 

Maintaining Known Hosts in Secure Shell

Each host that needs to communicate securely with another host must have the server's public key stored in the local host's /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts file. Although a script could be used to update the /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts files, such a practice is heavily discouraged because a script opens a major security vulnerability.

    The /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts file should be distributed only by a secure mechanism as follows:

  • Over a secure connection, such as Secure Shell, IPsec, or Kerberized ftp from a known and trusted machine

  • At system install time

To avoid the possibility of an intruder gaining access by inserting bogus public keys into a known_hosts file, you should use a known and trusted source of the ssh_known_hosts file. The ssh_known_hosts file can be distributed during installation. Later, scripts that use the scp command can be used to copy the latest version.