Topics: Security, System Admin

Automatically accept new SSH keys

Whenever you have to connect through SSH to a lot of different servers, and you create a command for it like this: 

# for h in $SERVER_LIST; do ssh $h "uptime"; done
You may run into an error that stops your command, especially when a new server is added to $SERVER_LIST, like this: 
The authenticity of host 'myserver (1.2.3.4)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is .....
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?
And you'll have to type "yes" every time this error is encountered.

So, how do you automate this, and not have to type "yes" with every new host?

The answer is to disable strict host key checking with the ssh command like this: 
ssh -oStrictHostKeyChecking=no $h uptime
Please note that you should only do this with hosts that you're familiar with, and/or are in trusted networks, as it bypasses a security question.



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