# knownhosts: enhanced Golang SSH known_hosts management

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> This repo is brought to you by [Skeema](https://github.com/skeema/skeema), a
> declarative pure-SQL schema management system for MySQL and MariaDB. Our
> premium products include extensive [SSH tunnel](https://www.skeema.io/docs/features/ssh/)
> functionality, which internally makes use of this package.

Go provides excellent functionality for OpenSSH known_hosts files in its
external package [golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts](https://pkg.go.dev/golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts). 
However, that package is somewhat low-level, making it difficult to implement full known_hosts management similar to OpenSSH's command-line behavior. Additionally, [golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts](https://pkg.go.dev/golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts) has several known issues in edge cases, some of which have remained open for multiple years.

Package [github.com/skeema/knownhosts](https://github.com/skeema/knownhosts) provides a *thin wrapper* around [golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts](https://pkg.go.dev/golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts), adding the following improvements and fixes without duplicating its core logic:

* Look up known_hosts public keys for any given host
* Auto-populate ssh.ClientConfig.HostKeyAlgorithms easily based on known_hosts, providing a solution for [golang/go#29286](https://github.com/golang/go/issues/29286). (This also properly handles cert algorithms for hosts using CA keys when [using the NewDB constructor](#enhancements-requiring-extra-parsing) added in skeema/knownhosts v1.3.0.)
* Properly match wildcard hostname known_hosts entries regardless of port number, providing a solution for [golang/go#52056](https://github.com/golang/go/issues/52056). (Added in v1.3.0; requires [using the NewDB constructor](#enhancements-requiring-extra-parsing))
* Write new known_hosts entries to an io.Writer
* Easily determine if an ssh.HostKeyCallback's error corresponds to a host whose key has changed (indicating potential MitM attack) vs a host that just isn't known yet

## How host key lookup works

Although [golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts](https://pkg.go.dev/golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts) doesn't directly expose a way to query its known_host map, we use a subtle trick to do so: invoke the HostKeyCallback with a valid host but a bogus key. The resulting KeyError allows us to determine which public keys are actually present for that host.

By using this technique, [github.com/skeema/knownhosts](https://github.com/skeema/knownhosts) doesn't need to duplicate any of the core known_hosts host-lookup logic from [golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts](https://pkg.go.dev/golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts).

## Populating ssh.ClientConfig.HostKeyAlgorithms based on known_hosts

Hosts often have multiple public keys, each of a different type (algorithm). This can be [problematic](https://github.com/golang/go/issues/29286) in [golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts](https://pkg.go.dev/golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts): if a host's first public key is *not* in known_hosts, but a key of a different type *is*, the HostKeyCallback returns an error. The solution is to populate `ssh.ClientConfig.HostKeyAlgorithms` based on the algorithms of the known_hosts entries for that host, but 
[golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts](https://pkg.go.dev/golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts)
does not provide an obvious way to do so.

This package uses its host key lookup trick in order to make ssh.ClientConfig.HostKeyAlgorithms easy to populate:

```golang
import (
	"golang.org/x/crypto/ssh"
	"github.com/skeema/knownhosts"
)

func sshConfigForHost(hostWithPort string) (*ssh.ClientConfig, error) {
	kh, err := knownhosts.NewDB("/home/myuser/.ssh/known_hosts")
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	config := &ssh.ClientConfig{
		User:              "myuser",
		Auth:              []ssh.AuthMethod{ /* ... */ },
		HostKeyCallback:   kh.HostKeyCallback(),
		HostKeyAlgorithms: kh.HostKeyAlgorithms(hostWithPort),
	}
	return config, nil
}
```

## Enhancements requiring extra parsing

Originally, this package did not re-read/re-parse the known_hosts files at all, relying entirely on [golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts](https://pkg.go.dev/golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts) for all known_hosts file reading and processing. This package only offered a constructor called `New`, returning a host key callback, identical to the call pattern of [golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts](https://pkg.go.dev/golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts) but with extra methods available on the callback type.

However, a couple shortcomings in [golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts](https://pkg.go.dev/golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts) cannot possibly be solved without re-reading the known_hosts file. Therefore, as of v1.3.0 of this package, we now offer an alternative constructor `NewDB`, which does an additional read of the known_hosts file (after the one from [golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts](https://pkg.go.dev/golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts)), in order to detect:

* @cert-authority lines, so that we can correctly return cert key algorithms instead of normal host key algorithms when appropriate
* host pattern wildcards, so that we can match OpenSSH's behavior for non-standard port numbers, unlike how [golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts](https://pkg.go.dev/golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts) normally treats them

Aside from *detecting* these special cases, this package otherwise still directly uses [golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts](https://pkg.go.dev/golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts) for host lookups and all other known_hosts file processing. We do **not** fork or re-implement those core behaviors of [golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts](https://pkg.go.dev/golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts).

The performance impact of this extra known_hosts read should be minimal, as the file should typically be in the filesystem cache already from the original read by [golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts](https://pkg.go.dev/golang.org/x/crypto/ssh/knownhosts). That said, users who wish to avoid the extra read can stay with the `New` constructor, which intentionally retains its pre-v1.3.0 behavior as-is. However, the extra fixes for @cert-authority and host pattern wildcards will not be enabled in that case.

## Writing new known_hosts entries

If you wish to mimic the behavior of OpenSSH's `StrictHostKeyChecking=no` or `StrictHostKeyChecking=ask`, this package provides a few functions to simplify this task. For example:

```golang
sshHost := "yourserver.com:22"
khPath := "/home/myuser/.ssh/known_hosts"
kh, err := knownhosts.NewDB(khPath)
if err != nil {
	log.Fatal("Failed to read known_hosts: ", err)
}

// Create a custom permissive hostkey callback which still errors on hosts
// with changed keys, but allows unknown hosts and adds them to known_hosts
cb := ssh.HostKeyCallback(func(hostname string, remote net.Addr, key ssh.PublicKey) error {
	innerCallback := kh.HostKeyCallback()
	err := innerCallback(hostname, remote, key)
	if knownhosts.IsHostKeyChanged(err) {
		return fmt.Errorf("REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED for host %s! This may indicate a MitM attack.", hostname)
	} else if knownhosts.IsHostUnknown(err) {
		f, ferr := os.OpenFile(khPath, os.O_APPEND|os.O_WRONLY, 0600)
		if ferr == nil {
			defer f.Close()
			ferr = knownhosts.WriteKnownHost(f, hostname, remote, key)
		}
		if ferr == nil {
			log.Printf("Added host %s to known_hosts\n", hostname)
		} else {
			log.Printf("Failed to add host %s to known_hosts: %v\n", hostname, ferr)
		}
		return nil // permit previously-unknown hosts (warning: may be insecure)
	}
	return err
})

config := &ssh.ClientConfig{
	User:              "myuser",
	Auth:              []ssh.AuthMethod{ /* ... */ },
	HostKeyCallback:   cb,
	HostKeyAlgorithms: kh.HostKeyAlgorithms(sshHost),
}
```

## License

**Source code copyright 2025 Skeema LLC and the Skeema Knownhosts authors**

```text
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.
```
