OpenSSH version 5.1 comes with a great new feature, namely visual fingerprint identification. This helps you in recognizing and identifying changes in fingerprints.
To enable visual fingerprinting for all your SSH sessions, add this to your ~/.ssh/config file:
This gives you a pretty piece of ASCII art when connecting to a remote host:
$ ssh labs.tehmaze.com
Host key fingerprint is fb:24:0a:db:f3:10:d2:33:20:14:fb:43:52:1e:05:50
+--[ RSA 2048]----+
| ++Eo. |
| . + . |
| + + |
| = o |
| + = S |
| o + . |
| . . o . |
| +.o + |
| . oo. . |
+-----------------+
Last login: Thu Oct 2 12:38:55 2008 from *.nl
wijnand@drone:~$
Trying another host...
$ ssh base
Host key fingerprint is 99:a3:6f:96:78:9c:ef:d7:83:26:33:1f:bd:b0:c7:be
+--[ RSA 2048]----+
| |
| |
| |
| o |
| S |
| . . . |
| .o o o+. |
| ..B + ++=. |
| +.ooBooEo |
+-----------------+
Last login: Thu Oct 2 10:47:23 2008 from *.nl
wijnand@base:~$
Ain't it pretty?