If you have used SSH to Login into remote host in Linux, you might have come across these two files stored under the .ssh directory in your home directory e.g. ~/.ssh. Both files are used in the login process for authentication, but the main difference between known_hosts and authorized_keys files are that, known_host is used for server authentication, while authorized_keys are used for client or user authentication. SSH allows login using both password and private keys, you might have heard about trusted SSH connection between two host to download files without entering password, this is achieved using public and private keys.