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<u>'''Establishing a Safe SSH Connection: Public Key Authentication'''</u>
As a system administrator, you have the ability to generate or create public and private keys to ensure safe and secure ssh connections. The system administer can generate these keys for the first time, of if they suspect that a hacker has compromised the server, can remove the existing keys and generate new keys. A common type of attack, Arp Poisoning (Man in the Middle Attack), can be used to redirect packets to a third party while maintaining the illusion that the connection is secure. Therefore, understanding about the generation and management of public/private keys are important to the security of servers.
When a user connects to a host using ssh, the host sends a fingerprint or digital signature to the client to establish its identity. The first time a connection is established the identity must be stored for subsequent connections. The fingerprints are stored separately for each user in a file called <code>~/.ssh/known_hosts</code> . <br /><br />From now on when you connect to that host the client will compare the received fingerprint against the list of known hosts before connecting. If the fingerprint does not match it could indicate somebody had setup a system to impersonate the computer you wish to connect to and you would receive a message similar to depicted in the diagram on the right.
