/dev/tty keeps changing permissions..?

[John Straiton]

> I'm pretty sure the ssh problem is with /dev/tty - I've 
> scoured quite a
> few message boards and newsgroups looking for a solution to the SSH
> problem.  The symptom:a user who doesn't currently own 
> /dev/tty attempts
> to open an outbound SSH session and gets a permission denied 
> error with
> an error message along the lines of "Host key verification 
> failed."  SCP
> likewise doesn't work.

That error message is usually because you're ssh'ing to boxen whos
public key has changed. 

The quick and easy fix? (which will reset all keys and break any
possible passwordless-ssh stuff you have setup)

root at yourmachine# find / -name "known_hosts" -exec rm {} \;


The correct fix?
Open up your known_hosts file for every user that has this problem and
remove the entry for the machine you're trying to ssh to, then save it.
This of course could be scripted.  By changing the permissions on the
/dev/tty device, you might be causing the ssh client to poll another
user's (perhaps root?) known_hosts which may have a correct entry in it
instead of an old public key.

One thing you can try to verify this might be to ssh to the machine's ip
if you're used to doing it to the name. If it's never been ssh'ed to
before (as the IP), it should ask you to confirm the new key and then
let you in.

John Straiton
jks at clickcom.com
Clickcom, Inc
704-365-9970x101