I keep getting 'Host key verification failed.' when calling `ssh` from PHP on Mac OS X

Question

I have set up a password-less login from my laptop (OS X) to my dev server (Linux) - this works fine (using ~/.ssh/id_rsa private key, and having put the contents of ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub into the servers ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file). So far, so good.

However, I am trying to connect to the server from within a PHP script. The Apache server supposedly runs as the _www user, and I have added the necessary hosts line to ~_www/.ssh/known_hosts without solving the problem.

I am feeling that there is something basic and fundamental about how Apache on OSX works that I am missing - any suggestions on what I might be doing wrong?

Thanks!

EDIT: I have confirmed that _www is indeed the currently logged in user, and the home directory is indeed /Library/WebServer . I added the known host to /Library/WebServer/.ssh/known_hosts , and I also forgot to mention that the private key file has been made readable by the _www user, and when I call the script I call ssh -i /path/to/private.key .

Answer 1

I figured it out - the .ssh directory in /Library/WebServer was owned by root:wheel (like the other files and directories in that directory, thus hiding the fact in plain view...). I changed ownership to _www:wheel , and it works like it should now! Thanks, and sorry for wasting your time.