SSH auth fails with "Host key verification failed" despite providing valid keys

Question

In Azure DevOps Pipelines I want to SSH to a private repo with dependencies. I am getting following error:

Host key verification failed. fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Despite uploading private key to secure files and public key is set in project variables.

see below

steps:  
- task: InstallSSHKey@0
  inputs:
    hostName: $(hostname)
    sshPublicKey: $(testkey.pub)
    sshPassphrase: $(passphrase)
    sshKeySecureFile: testkey


- script: |
    git clone [email protected]:xxxx/xxxxx.git
  displayName: 'clone repo'

Chris · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-29 17:37:29Z

3

Host key verification failed

This doesn't refer to the SSH key you're trying to use to connect. It refers to the server's SSH public key fingerprint. This is the thing you see (and should check) when you first connect to a new machine.

Verifying the host key fingerprint protects against man-in-the-middle attacks, where a malicious third party could sit between you and your target server passing communication back and forth while observing or modifying said communication. The Azure documentation discusses this as well.

Manually SSH to the machine once, check that the fingerprint is what you expect it to be, and accept it. Subsequent connections should work unless the fingerprint changes.

answered Mar 29, 2019 at 17:37

Chris

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Comments

anca · Accepted Answer · 2021-08-31 14:24:25Z

3

Maybe not the best solution:

bash: ssh-keyscan -t rsa < host_name > >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts

edited Aug 31, 2021 at 14:24

answered Aug 31, 2021 at 14:07

anca

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2 Comments

Community Over a year ago

Please provide additional details in your answer. As it's currently written, it's hard to understand your solution.

Chris Over a year ago

It's always better to actually verify these keys than to blindly trust them.

Big Bear Brian · Accepted Answer · 2021-12-13 22:56:58Z

1

Can't comment on the previous post 'cause I've got less than 50 rep, but what anca was saying is paste from the following into the known_hosts file:

On Windows, this involves:

Run Bash
Copy the output starting "ssh.dev.azure.com ssh-rsa..."
Paste into C:\Users<username>.ssh\known_hosts

answered Dec 13, 2021 at 22:56

Big Bear Brian

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