SSH into a box with a frequently changed IP

I have some cloud boxes that change their IP frequently.

I ssh using the hostname but have to edit the known_hosts file every time the server launches because of this error message:

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@    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…

Aside from any security risks and such that are associated with what I want to do, is there a way to either ignore this error or overwrite the known_hosts file automatically such that I don't always have to edit it myself?

Solution 1:

Edit your ssh_config file and add change this line:

CheckHostIP no

CheckHostIP defaults to 'yes'. What this does is to do just the kind of check you're failing. Turning it off means it just trusts that the IP is variable, and will to key-checking against the hostname.

Solution 2:

Addition: you could try only disabling the CheckHostIP check for that name:

Host *
  [ global settings .. ]

Host very.dynamic.host
  CheckHostIP no

Solution 3:

A lot of the answers here will work - but technically they're workarounds. OpenSSH already has a built-in feature with this in mind: HostKeyAlias.

In your .ssh/config file, add HostKeyAlias <alias> to a host configuration:

host myserver.example.com
HostKeyAlias myserver.example.com

With this in place, connecting to server myserver.example.com will not use the hostname or the IP address for the local reference - it will always only use the given HostKeyAlias when connecting to that server. For me it makes sense to use the hostname - but you can of course use any alias you like.

Typical configs for myself for dynamic hosts are like so:

host myserver
hostname myserver.dyn.example.com
HostKeyAlias myserver.private.example.com

This can also be used in some obscure scenarios where you know a bunch of your servers have the same host keys (generally this should not be the case). This would then prevent duplicate entries. In future, if the keys legitimately change, you don't have to replace/delete multiple entries. Only one. Gitlab Geo servers are a good example of this.

Regarding clearing the known_hosts file, I would suggest looking at other questions/answers specifically related to maintaining/removing stale known_hosts entries. For example, see https://serverfault.com/questions/29262/how-to-manage-my-ssh-known-hosts-file ; I'm especially impressed by user1953828's answer, though I see it doesn't have many upvotes (yet). :)

Solution 4:

I use these dodgy options to work around this problem. (My host's public key is regenerated quite often. so this removes the IP and Key check)

ssh remoteServerName -l username -o "UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null"

You can also just use this if the Key stays the same but the IP changes:

ssh remoteServerName -l username -o "CheckHostIP=no"

Solution 5:

You could put CheckHostIP no into your ~/.ssh/config file, but that leaves you open to spoofing attacks. If you're not concerned about that, then this setting should turn off the known_hosts check.