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Question about HostKeyVerification #839

Answered by hierynomus
hamnis asked this question in Q&A
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No, this does not verify the host key itself (which could be a certificate!), but rather whether we trust the signature on the certificate if the host key is a certificate.

It could be for instance that you you've added the (certificate) host key to your known_hosts, but at a certain moment in time the certificate becomes revoked, the signing CA gets breached and retracts the root certificate, etc. It adds a layer of security.

The HostKeyVerifier just checks whether the hostkey is known, by checking a hardcoded/configured fingerprint, looking at your known_hosts file, or just blindly accepting all.

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@hamnis
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@hierynomus
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