I've always specifically refused to do this because it's very common for insufficient entropy to be available at boot time, resulting in weak host keys on systems that have been configured this way. There was an academic study a while back of weak host keys on the internet where this sort of thing was one of the likely causes.
You can configure your own VMs to do this kind of thing via cloud-init or whatever, but I'm afraid I don't intend to put it in the default configuration. ** Project changed: launchpad => openssh (Ubuntu) ** Changed in: openssh (Ubuntu) Status: New => Won't Fix -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to openssh in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1778386 Title: If SSH host keys are missing, they should automatically regenerate at boot time Status in openssh package in Ubuntu: Won't Fix Bug description: When SSH host keys are missing, they should be automatically regenerated at boot time so SSH functions. This is particularly useful if cloning VM's or using a VM template. I have modified the following using CentOS 7's .service file. /lib/systemd/system/ssh-keygen.service : [Unit] Description=OpenSSH Server Key Generation ConditionFileNotEmpty=|!/etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key ConditionFileNotEmpty=|!/etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key ConditionFileNotEmpty=|!/etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key PartOf=ssh.service sshd.socket [Service] ExecStart=/usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure openssh-server Type=oneshot RemainAfterExit=yes And added the following to ssh.service. /lib/systemd/system/ssh.service : [Unit] ... After=network.target ssh-keygen.service ... Wants=ssh-keygen.service ... I have tested this and it is working. To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openssh/+bug/1778386/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages Post to : touch-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp