SSH – Smoothest Workflow to Handle SSH Host Verification Errors

This is a simple issue that we all face and probably resolve manually without giving much thought.

As servers change, are re-provisioned, or IP addresses reallocated, we receive the SSH host verification message below. I'm interested in streamlining the workflow to resolve these ssh identification errors.

Given the following message, I typically vi /root/.ssh/known_hosts +434 and remove (dd) the offending line.

I've seen developers/users in other organizations delete their entire known_hosts file out of frustration in seeing this message. While I don't go that far, I know there's a more elegant way to handle this.

Tips?

[root@xt ~]# ssh las-db1

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@    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
ed:86:a2:c4:cd:9b:c5:7a:b1:2b:cc:42:15:76:8c:56.
Please contact your system administrator.
Add correct host key in /root/.ssh/known_hosts to get rid of this message.
Offending key in /root/.ssh/known_hosts:434
RSA host key for las-db1 has changed and you have requested strict checking.
Host key verification failed.