Where does Putty store known_hosts information on Windows?

Question

How do I tell if Putty already knows about and has cached credentials for specific ssh servers?

Another way to ask this question is what is the Windows/Putty equivalent of a unix/ssh known_hosts file?

Answer 1

Putty stores known hosts under a registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SoftWare\SimonTatham\PuTTY\SshHostKeys.

Answer 2

So in windows known_hosts for PuTTY is SshHostKeys.

that is stored at the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\SshHostKeys location. To reach that location, the Registry Editor supposed to be used.

• go to start - look for regedit
• then you will see all the directories on the left pane under computer
• just like this image says go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\SshHostKeys location - location
• then you can modify like you wish Known host options
• If needed you can check the content in the SshHostKeys file using this command REG QUERY HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\SshHostKeys in PowerShell

And then the cache will be cleared. Will be everything new again for that particular entry