To delete SSH keys on a Linux or Unix system, you can use the ssh-keygen
command. The basic syntax for deleting an SSH key is as follows:
ssh-keygen -f /path/to/key -R hostname
Where /path/to/key
is the path to the SSH key file, and hostname
is the hostname associated with the key.
For example, to delete the RSA key for the host example.com
, you would run the following command:
ssh-keygen -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub -R example.com
You can also delete all known SSH keys for a host by running the following command:
ssh-keygen -f ~/.ssh/known_hosts -R example.com
Note that deleting an SSH key will not affect any existing SSH connections. However, it will prevent you from connecting to the host using the key in the future.
It’s important to regularly review and clean up your SSH keys to ensure that you only have active, secure keys on your system.