Verify host key with pysftp

Question

I am writing a program using pysftp, and it wants to verify the SSH host Key against C:\\Users\\JohnCalvin\\.ssh\\known_hosts.

Using PuTTY, the terminal

Answer 1

FWIR, if authentication is only username & pw, add remote server ip address to known_hosts like ssh-keyscan -H 192.168.1.162 >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts for ref https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-easily-add-an-ssh-fingerprint-to-your-knownhosts-file-in-linux/

Answer 2

Connect to the server first with a Windows ssh client that uses the known_hosts file. PuTTy stores the data in the windows registry,however OpenSSH uses the known_hosts file, and will add entries in there after you connect. Default location for the file is %USERPROFILE%.ssh. I hope this helps

Answer 3

Hi We sort of had the same problem if I understand you well. So check what pysftp version you're using. If it's the latest one which is 0.2.9 downgrade to 0.2.8. Check this out. https://github.com/Yenthe666/auto_backup/issues/47

Answer 4

One option is to disable the host key requirement:

import pysftp
cnopts = pysftp.CnOpts()
cnopts.hostkeys = None   
with pysftp.Connection(host, username, password, cnopts=cnopts) as sftp:
    sftp.put(local_path, remote_path)

You can find more info about that here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/38355117/1060738

Important note:

By setting cnopts.hostkeys=None you'll lose the protection against Man-in-the-middle attacks by doing so. Use @martin-prikryl answer to avoid that.

Answer 5

Do not set cnopts.hostkeys = None (as the second most upvoted answer shows), unless you do not care about security. You lose a protection against Man-in-the-middle attacks by doing so.

---

Use CnOpts.hostkeys (returns HostKeys) to manage trusted host keys.

cnopts = pysftp.CnOpts(knownhosts='known_hosts')

with pysftp.Connection(host, username, password, cnopts=cnopts) as sftp:

where the known_hosts contains a server public key[s] in a format like:

example.com ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQAB...

---

If you do not want to use an external file, you can also use

from base64 import decodebytes
# ...

keydata = b"""AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQAB..."""
key = paramiko.RSAKey(data=decodebytes(keydata))
cnopts = pysftp.CnOpts()
cnopts.hostkeys.add('example.com', 'ssh-rsa', key)

with pysftp.Connection(host, username, password, cnopts=cnopts) as sftp:

Though as of pysftp 0.2.9, this approach will issue a warning, what seems like a bug:
"Failed to load HostKeys" warning while connecting to SFTP server with pysftp

---

An easy way to retrieve the host key in this format is using OpenSSH ssh-keyscan:

$ ssh-keyscan example.com
# example.com SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_5.3
example.com ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQAB...

(due to a bug in pysftp, this does not work, if the server uses non-standard port – the entry starts with [example.com]:port + beware of redirecting ssh-keyscan to a file in PowerShell)

You can also make the application do the same automatically:
Use Paramiko AutoAddPolicy with pysftp
(It will automatically add host keys of new hosts to known_hosts, but for known host keys, it will not accept a changed key)

---

Though for an absolute security, you should not retrieve the host key remotely, as you cannot be sure, if you are not being attacked already.

See my article Where do I get SSH host key fingerprint to authorize the server?
It's for my WinSCP SFTP client, but most information there is valid in general.

---

If you need to verify the host key using its fingerprint only, see Python - pysftp / paramiko - Verify host key using its fingerprint.

Answer 6

If You try to connect by pysftp to "normal" FTP You have to set hostkey to None.

import pysftp

cnopts = pysftp.CnOpts()
cnopts.hostkeys = None 
with pysftp.Connection(host='****',username='****',password='***',port=22,cnopts=cnopts) as sftp:
    print('DO SOMETHING')