Linux – Temporarily ignore the `~/.ssh/known_hosts` file

linuxssh

Is there a way to temporarily ignore my ~/.ssh/known_hostsfile?

mbp:~ alexus$ ssh 10.52.11.171
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@    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
xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx.
Please contact your system administrator.
Add correct host key in /Users/alexus/.ssh/known_hosts to get rid of this message.
Offending RSA key in /Users/alexus/.ssh/known_hosts:155
RSA host key for 10.52.11.171 has changed and you have requested strict checking.
Host key verification failed.
mbp:~ alexus$

NOTE:

.. by a few answer(s)/comment(s) i realize that my question is a bit misleading, so short it is expected behavior), so it's normal (in my case) there is a valid reason behind it on why I want to see "ignore it")

Best Answer

You can use ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no to turn off checking known_hosts momentarily. But I'd advise against this. You should really check why the host key has changed.

Another option is to add a specific entry to your ~/.ssh/config for the host in question. This might be valid approach if you have a certain host which generates new host keys every time it reboots and it gets rebooted for a valid reason several times a day.

Host <your problematic host>
  StrictHostKeyChecking no
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