Answer a host key prompt#

Every SSH server identifies itself with a host key. When you connect to a server whose key is not one you have already trusted, Remote Terminal stops and asks you before it goes any further. The connection waits for your answer, so Remote Terminal sends nothing to the server until you decide.

Trust a new host key#

A server you have not seen before opens a window titled Unknown host key. The window shows the host and port you are connecting to, and the key's fingerprint.

The prompt asks you to verify the fingerprint out of band before you trust it. That means you check it against a source that does not come through this connection: your provider's console, a colleague who reads it off the machine, or your own record from when the server was built. A fingerprint the server hands you proves nothing on its own.

Select Trust & connect to accept the key and continue, or Reject to abandon the connection.

When a key changes#

If the key does not match the one you trusted before, the window is titled Host key changed and the wording is stronger. A changed key can mean someone rebuilt or reinstalled the server legitimately. It can also mean something sits between you and the server and reads everything you type.

Nothing in the prompt tells you which. Continue only if you already know why the key changed. The accept button is labelled Accept changed key and is styled as a destructive action, because that is what it is.

Answer the prompt#

You cannot dismiss the prompt without an answer: there is no close button, and no cancel. Any other way to dismiss it counts as a rejection, and the connection fails. This is deliberate, so that an ignored prompt never becomes an accepted key.

If several connections need a decision at once, the prompts queue and you answer them one at a time.