community.crypto.openssl_privatekey_pipe module – Generate OpenSSL private keys without disk access

Note

This module is part of the community.crypto collection (version 2.26.5).

You might already have this collection installed if you are using the ansible package. It is not included in ansible-core. To check whether it is installed, run ansible-galaxy collection list.

To install it, use: ansible-galaxy collection install community.crypto. You need further requirements to be able to use this module, see Requirements for details.

To use it in a playbook, specify: community.crypto.openssl_privatekey_pipe.

New in community.crypto 1.3.0

Synopsis

  • Keys are generated in PEM format.

  • Make sure to not write the result of this module into logs or to the console, as it contains private key data! Use the no_log task option to be sure.

  • Note that this module is implemented as an action plugin and will always be executed on the controller.

  • One can generate RSA, DSA, ECC or EdDSA private keys.

  • This allows to read and write keys to vaults without having to write intermediate versions to disk.

  • This module allows one to (re)generate OpenSSL private keys without disk access.

Note

This module has a corresponding action plugin.

Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the host that executes this module.

  • cryptography >= 1.2.3 (older versions might work as well)

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

cipher

string

The cipher to encrypt the private key. This is only used when passphrase is provided.

Must be auto.

Default: "auto"

content

string

The current private key data.

Needed for idempotency. If not provided, the module will always return a change, and all idempotence-related options are ignored.

content_base64

boolean

Set to true if the content is base64 encoded.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

curve

string

Note that not all curves are supported by all versions of cryptography.

For maximal interoperability, secp384r1 or secp256r1 should be used.

We use the curve names as defined in the IANA registry for TLS.

Please note that all curves except secp224r1, secp256k1, secp256r1, secp384r1, and secp521r1 are discouraged for new private keys.

Choices:

  • "secp224r1"

  • "secp256k1"

  • "secp256r1"

  • "secp384r1"

  • "secp521r1"

  • "secp192r1"

  • "brainpoolP256r1"

  • "brainpoolP384r1"

  • "brainpoolP512r1"

  • "sect163k1"

  • "sect163r2"

  • "sect233k1"

  • "sect233r1"

  • "sect283k1"

  • "sect283r1"

  • "sect409k1"

  • "sect409r1"

  • "sect571k1"

  • "sect571r1"

format

string

Determines which format the private key is written in. By default, PKCS1 (traditional OpenSSL format) is used for all keys which support it. Please note that not every key can be exported in any format.

The value auto selects a format based on the key format. The value auto_ignore does the same, but for existing private key files, it will not force a regenerate when its format is not the automatically selected one for generation.

Note that if the format for an existing private key mismatches, the key is regenerated by default. To change this behavior, use the format_mismatch option.

Choices:

  • "pkcs1"

  • "pkcs8"

  • "raw"

  • "auto"

  • "auto_ignore" ← (default)

format_mismatch

string

Determines behavior of the module if the format of a private key does not match the expected format, but all other parameters are as expected.

If set to regenerate (default), generates a new private key.

If set to convert, the key will be converted to the new format instead.

Only supported by the cryptography backend.

Choices:

  • "regenerate" ← (default)

  • "convert"

passphrase

string

The passphrase for the private key.

regenerate

string

Allows to configure in which situations the module is allowed to regenerate private keys. The module will always generate a new key if the destination file does not exist.

By default, the key will be regenerated when it does not match the module’s options, except when the key cannot be read or the passphrase does not match. Please note that this changed for Ansible 2.10. For Ansible 2.9, the behavior was as if full_idempotence is specified.

If set to never, the module will fail if the key cannot be read or the passphrase is not matching, and will never regenerate an existing key.

If set to fail, the module will fail if the key does not correspond to the module’s options.

If set to partial_idempotence, the key will be regenerated if it does not conform to the module’s options. The key is not regenerated if it cannot be read (broken file), the key is protected by an unknown passphrase, or when they key is not protected by a passphrase, but a passphrase is specified.

If set to full_idempotence, the key will be regenerated if it does not conform to the module’s options. This is also the case if the key cannot be read (broken file), the key is protected by an unknown passphrase, or when they key is not protected by a passphrase, but a passphrase is specified. Make sure you have a backup when using this option!

If set to always, the module will always regenerate the key.

Note that if format_mismatch is set to convert and everything matches except the format, the key will always be converted, except if regenerate is set to always.

Choices:

  • "never"

  • "fail"

  • "partial_idempotence"

  • "full_idempotence" ← (default)

  • "always"

return_current_key

boolean

Set to true to return the current private key when the module did not generate a new one.

Note that in case of check mode, when this option is not set to true, the module always returns the current key (if it was provided) and Ansible will replace it by VALUE_SPECIFIED_IN_NO_LOG_PARAMETER.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

select_crypto_backend

string

Determines which crypto backend to use.

The default choice is auto, which tries to use cryptography if available.

If set to cryptography, will try to use the cryptography library.

Choices:

  • "auto" ← (default)

  • "cryptography"

size

integer

Size (in bits) of the TLS/SSL key to generate.

Default: 4096

type

string

The algorithm used to generate the TLS/SSL private key.

Note that ECC, X25519, X448, Ed25519, and Ed448 require the cryptography backend. X25519 needs cryptography 2.5 or newer, while X448, Ed25519, and Ed448 require cryptography 2.6 or newer. For ECC, the minimal cryptography version required depends on the curve option.

Choices:

  • "DSA"

  • "ECC"

  • "Ed25519"

  • "Ed448"

  • "RSA" ← (default)

  • "X25519"

  • "X448"

Attributes

Attribute

Support

Description

action

Support: full

Indicates this has a corresponding action plugin so some parts of the options can be executed on the controller.

async

Support: none

This action runs completely on the controller.

Supports being used with the async keyword.

check_mode

Support: full

Currently in check mode, private keys will not be (re-)generated, only the changed status is set. This will change in community.crypto 3.0.0.

From community.crypto 3.0.0 on, the module will ignore check mode and always behave as if check mode is not active. If you think this breaks your use-case of this module, please create an issue in the community.crypto repository.

Can run in check_mode and return changed status prediction without modifying target.

diff_mode

Support: full

Will return details on what has changed (or possibly needs changing in check_mode), when in diff mode.

idempotent

Support: partial

The option regenerate=always generally disables idempotency.

When run twice in a row outside check mode, with the same arguments, the second invocation indicates no change.

This assumes that the system controlled/queried by the module has not changed in a relevant way.

See Also

See also

community.crypto.openssl_privatekey

Generate OpenSSL private keys.

community.crypto.openssl_privatekey_info

Provide information for OpenSSL private keys.

community.crypto.x509_certificate

Generate and/or check OpenSSL certificates.

community.crypto.x509_certificate_pipe

Generate and/or check OpenSSL certificates.

community.crypto.openssl_csr

Generate OpenSSL Certificate Signing Request (CSR).

community.crypto.openssl_csr_pipe

Generate OpenSSL Certificate Signing Request (CSR).

community.crypto.openssl_dhparam

Generate OpenSSL Diffie-Hellman Parameters.

community.crypto.openssl_pkcs12

Generate OpenSSL PKCS#12 archive.

community.crypto.openssl_publickey

Generate an OpenSSL public key from its private key.

Examples

---
- name: Generate an OpenSSL private key with the default values (4096 bits, RSA)
  community.crypto.openssl_privatekey_pipe:
  register: output
  no_log: true # make sure that private key data is not accidentally revealed in logs!
- name: Show generated key
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: "{{ output.privatekey }}"
  # DO NOT OUTPUT KEY MATERIAL TO CONSOLE OR LOGS IN PRODUCTION!


# The following example needs CNCF SOPS (https://github.com/getsops/sops) set up and
# the community.sops collection installed. See also
# https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/community/sops/docsite/guide.html

- name: Generate or update a CNCF SOPS encrypted key
  block:
    - name: Update SOPS-encrypted key with the community.sops collection
      community.crypto.openssl_privatekey_pipe:
        content: "{{ lookup('community.sops.sops', 'private_key.pem.sops') }}"
        size: 2048
      register: output
      no_log: true # make sure that private key data is not accidentally revealed in logs!

    - name: Update encrypted key when openssl_privatekey_pipe reported a change
      community.sops.sops_encrypt:
        path: private_key.pem.sops
        content_text: "{{ output.privatekey }}"
      when: output is changed
  always:
    - name: Make sure that output (which contains the private key) is overwritten
      ansible.builtin.set_fact:
        output: ''

Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key

Description

curve

string

Elliptic curve used to generate the TLS/SSL private key.

Returned: changed or success, and type is ECC

Sample: "secp256r1"

fingerprint

dictionary

The fingerprint of the public key. Fingerprint will be generated for each hashlib.algorithms available.

Returned: changed or success

Sample: {"md5": "84:75:71:72:8d:04:b5:6c:4d:37:6d:66:83:f5:4c:29", "sha1": "51:cc:7c:68:5d:eb:41:43:88:7e:1a:ae:c7:f8:24:72:ee:71:f6:10", "sha224": "b1:19:a6:6c:14:ac:33:1d:ed:18:50:d3:06:5c:b2:32:91:f1:f1:52:8c:cb:d5:75:e9:f5:9b:46", "sha256": "41:ab:c7:cb:d5:5f:30:60:46:99:ac:d4:00:70:cf:a1:76:4f:24:5d:10:24:57:5d:51:6e:09:97:df:2f:de:c7", "sha384": "85:39:50:4e:de:d9:19:33:40:70:ae:10:ab:59:24:19:51:c3:a2:e4:0b:1c:b1:6e:dd:b3:0c:d9:9e:6a:46:af:da:18:f8:ef:ae:2e:c0:9a:75:2c:9b:b3:0f:3a:5f:3d", "sha512": "fd:ed:5e:39:48:5f:9f:fe:7f:25:06:3f:79:08:cd:ee:a5:e7:b3:3d:13:82:87:1f:84:e1:f5:c7:28:77:53:94:86:56:38:69:f0:d9:35:22:01:1e:a6:60:...:0f:9b"}

privatekey

string

The generated private key’s content.

Please note that if the result is not changed, the current private key will only be returned if the return_current_key option is set to true.

Will be Base64-encoded if the key is in raw format.

Returned: changed, or return_current_key is true

size

integer

Size (in bits) of the TLS/SSL private key.

Returned: changed or success

Sample: 4096

type

string

Algorithm used to generate the TLS/SSL private key.

Returned: changed or success

Sample: "RSA"

Authors

  • Yanis Guenane (@Spredzy)

  • Felix Fontein (@felixfontein)