diff --git a/src/libstore/machines.cc b/src/libstore/machines.cc
index ecae3054e..700c9b3dd 100644
--- a/src/libstore/machines.cc
+++ b/src/libstore/machines.cc
@@ -69,10 +69,10 @@ ref<Store> Machine::openStore() const
     Store::Params storeParams;
     if (storeUri.starts_with("ssh://")) {
         storeParams["max-connections"] = "1";
-        storeParams["log-fd"] = "4";
     }
 
     if (storeUri.starts_with("ssh://") || storeUri.starts_with("ssh-ng://")) {
+        storeParams["log-fd"] = "4";
         if (sshKey != "")
             storeParams["ssh-key"] = sshKey;
         if (sshPublicHostKey != "")
diff --git a/src/libstore/ssh-store.cc b/src/libstore/ssh-store.cc
index 4a6aad449..80d10eb0f 100644
--- a/src/libstore/ssh-store.cc
+++ b/src/libstore/ssh-store.cc
@@ -32,6 +32,10 @@ struct SSHStoreConfig : virtual RemoteStoreConfig, virtual CommonSSHStoreConfig
 class SSHStore : public virtual SSHStoreConfig, public virtual RemoteStore
 {
 public:
+    // Hack for getting remote build log output.
+    // Intentionally not in `SSHStoreConfig` so that it doesn't appear in
+    // the documentation
+    const Setting<int> logFD{(StoreConfig*) this, -1, "log-fd", "file descriptor to which SSH's stderr is connected"};
 
     SSHStore(const std::string & scheme, const std::string & host, const Params & params)
         : StoreConfig(params)
@@ -47,7 +51,8 @@ public:
             sshPublicHostKey,
             // Use SSH master only if using more than 1 connection.
             connections->capacity() > 1,
-            compress)
+            compress,
+            logFD)
     {
     }
 
diff --git a/tests/nixos/remote-builds-ssh-ng.nix b/tests/nixos/remote-builds-ssh-ng.nix
index 5ff471607..8deb9a504 100644
--- a/tests/nixos/remote-builds-ssh-ng.nix
+++ b/tests/nixos/remote-builds-ssh-ng.nix
@@ -95,6 +95,10 @@ in
       builder.succeed("mkdir -p -m 700 /root/.ssh")
       builder.copy_from_host("key.pub", "/root/.ssh/authorized_keys")
       builder.wait_for_unit("sshd.service")
+
+      out = client.fail("nix-build ${expr nodes.client 1} 2>&1")
+      assert "error: failed to start SSH connection to 'root@builder': Host key verification failed" in out, f"No host verification error in {out}"
+
       client.succeed(f"ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no {builder.name} 'echo hello world' >&2")
 
       # Perform a build