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SecurityOctober 21, 2026, 05:29

OpenSSH silently rewrites known_hosts by default

Since OpenSSH 7.6, UpdateHostKeys is on by default: after authentication a server can quietly rewrite its known_hosts entry, adding keys and pruning pinned ones. The author reproduced it against a local sshd — a pinned key vanished, an extra server key appeared, and ssh exited 0 with no output.

OpenSSH silently rewrites known_hosts by default
#OpenSSH
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