I'm working on a project where I must SFTP files to and from an arbitrary set of systems that is not known until runtime. These systems only have SFTP on them as a means of file transfer (this includes SCP) and installing anything else on them is absolutely not an option. My problem is that I need to be able to accept / ignore the host key authentication since it isn't possible to do so manually. I've seen this topic come up before and the conclusion has always been "never do that! It's pointless and you lose all the security!". Thing is, I don't need the security. This system runs on a tightly secured private network and I use SFTP only because there is no other option (such as FTP).

I have gone so far as to run

ECHO y | winscp ....

which would normally work. But winscp is too smart for that and automatically ignores my input and cancels host key authentication.

Has anyone run into this and come up with a workaround?
Thanks!