Bug #51606 for Net-OpenSSH: Provide option for new to ignore host keys

Tue Nov 17 11:48:03 2009 toddr [...] null.net - Ticket created

Subject:

Provide option for new to ignore host keys

One of the more annoying points of automating ssh connections is the host keys prompt: $>ssh root@$ip The authenticity of host '$ip ($ip)' can't be established. RSA key fingerprint is 14:26:11:0e:de:b8:c1:94:60:8e:48:56:e6:19:76:34. Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? Thankfully, this can now avoided by passing the following master option to openssh: ('-o' => 'StrictHostKeyChecking=no') I suggest an option for new called "ignore_host_keys => 1". People passing this to new will cause Net::OpenSSH to use this master option on connect. Even more aggressively, I'd even suggest defaulting this option and requiring the user to turn it off if they don't want this since I believe anyone using this module probably wants this as the default behavior on non-interactive logins. However, I suspect there would be outcry if you do so. If you can tolerate the complaints, I would encourage it, but it needs to be well documented if you do so. While everyone could go look this up in openssh documentation and just use it in new, I think it would be more readily used if it's in Net::OpenSSH documentation. What do you think about this? Thanks, Todd

Tue Nov 17 12:26:26 2009 sfandino [...] yahoo.com - Correspondence added

Subject:	Re: [rt.cpan.org #51606] Provide option for new to ignore host keys
Date:	Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:26:07 -0800 (PST)
To:	bug-Net-OpenSSH [...] rt.cpan.org
From:	Salvador Fandino <sfandino [...] yahoo.com>

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----- Original Message ----

> From: "toddr@null.net via RT" <bug-Net-OpenSSH@rt.cpan.org> > Sent: Tue, November 17, 2009 5:48:03 PM > Subject: [rt.cpan.org #51606] Provide option for new to ignore host keys > > Tue Nov 17 11:48:03 2009: Request 51606 was acted upon. > Transaction: Ticket created by toddr@null.net > Queue: Net-OpenSSH > Subject: Provide option for new to ignore host keys > Broken in: 0.40 > Severity: Normal > Owner: Nobody > Requestors: toddr@null.net > Status: new > Ticket > > > One of the more annoying points of automating ssh connections is the host keys > prompt: > > $>ssh root@$ip > The authenticity of host '$ip ($ip)' can't be established. > RSA key fingerprint is 14:26:11:0e:de:b8:c1:94:60:8e:48:56:e6:19:76:34. > Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? > > Thankfully, this can now avoided by passing the following master option to > openssh: > ('-o' => 'StrictHostKeyChecking=no') > > I suggest an option for new called "ignore_host_keys => 1". > People passing this to new will cause Net::OpenSSH to use this master option on > connect. > > Even more aggressively, I'd even suggest defaulting this option and requiring > the user to turn > it off if they don't want this since I believe anyone using this module probably > wants this as > the default behavior on non-interactive logins. However, I suspect there would > be outcry if > you do so. If you can tolerate the complaints, I would encourage it, but it > needs to be well > documented if you do so. > > While everyone could go look this up in openssh documentation and just use it in > new, I > think it would be more readily used if it's in Net::OpenSSH documentation. > > What do you think about this?

I don't like the idea. Using StrictHostKeyChecking=no relaxes the default security level of SSH and it will be relatively easy to end with a misconfigured SSH (for instance, when known_hosts is unwriteable) that can be forged to connect to another host. I don't want to advocate that practice, I prefer to force the user to configure SSH correctly. If he wants to use weak configs, at least he must do it explicitly. Cheers, - Salva

Tue Nov 17 12:26:27 2009 The RT System itself - Status changed from 'new' to 'open'

Tue Nov 17 12:42:16 2009 salva [...] cpan.org - Status changed from 'open' to 'rejected'