CompTIA Linux+ (XK0-004) — Question 133

A Linux administrator recently reprovisioned a new corporate web server to replace a legacy one. To minimize the impact on the company's users, the administrator modified the network and DNS settings of the new server to be the same as the legacy server.
When attempting to log in to the new server remotely over SSH, the following error message is displayed:
WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED!
Which of the following should the administrator do to resolve the issue?

Answer options

• A. Restart the network services on both the remote server and the local machine.
• B. Remove the entry for the web server from the known_hosts file on the local machine.
• C. Update the /etc/hosts file on the remote server and local machine.
• D. Add the administrator's public key to the authorized_keys on the remote server.

Correct answer: D

Explanation

The error indicates that the SSH client has detected a change in the server's host key, likely because it is seeing a new server with the same IP address. The correct action is to add the administrator's public key to the authorized_keys on the remote server, allowing secure access. The other options do not address the change in host key and would not resolve the SSH connection issue.