ansible.posix.authorized_key module – Adds or removes an SSH authorized key

Note

This module is part of the ansible.posix collection (version 1.6.2).

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 ansible.posix.

To use it in a playbook, specify: ansible.posix.authorized_key.

New in ansible.posix 1.0.0

Synopsis

• Adds or removes SSH authorized keys for particular user accounts.

Parameters

Parameter	Comments
comment string	Change the comment on the public key. Rewriting the comment is useful in cases such as fetching it from GitHub or GitLab. If no comment is specified, the existing comment will be kept.
exclusive boolean	Whether to remove all other non-specified keys from the authorized_keys file. Multiple keys can be specified in a single key string value by separating them by newlines. This option is not loop aware, so if you use with_ , it will be exclusive per iteration of the loop. If you want multiple keys in the file you need to pass them all to key in a single batch as mentioned above. Choices: false ← (default) true
follow boolean	Follow path symlink instead of replacing it. Choices: false ← (default) true
key string / required	The SSH public key(s), as a string or (since Ansible 1.9) url (https://github.com/username.keys).
key_options string	A string of ssh key options to be prepended to the key in the authorized_keys file.
manage_dir boolean	Whether this module should manage the directory of the authorized key file. If set to true, the module will create the directory, as well as set the owner and permissions of an existing directory. Be sure to set manage_dir=false if you are using an alternate directory for authorized_keys, as set with path, since you could lock yourself out of SSH access. See the example below. Choices: false true ← (default)
path path	Alternative path to the authorized_keys file. The default value is the .ssh/authorized_keys of the home of the user specified in the user parameter. Most of the time, it is not necessary to set this key. Use the path to your target authorized_keys if you need to explicitly point on it.
state string	Whether the given key (with the given key_options) should or should not be in the file. Choices: "absent" "present" ← (default)
user string / required	The username on the remote host whose authorized_keys file will be modified.
validate_certs boolean	This only applies if using a https url as the source of the keys. If set to false, the SSL certificates will not be validated. This should only set to false used on personally controlled sites using self-signed certificates as it avoids verifying the source site. Prior to 2.1 the code worked as if this was set to true. Choices: false true ← (default)

Examples

- name: Set authorized key taken from file
  ansible.posix.authorized_key:
    user: charlie
    state: present
    key: "{{ lookup('file', '/home/charlie/.ssh/id_rsa.pub') }}"

- name: Set authorized keys taken from url
  ansible.posix.authorized_key:
    user: charlie
    state: present
    key: https://github.com/charlie.keys

- name: Set authorized keys taken from url using lookup
  ansible.posix.authorized_key:
    user: charlie
    state: present
    key: "{{ lookup('url', 'https://github.com/charlie.keys', split_lines=False) }}"

- name: Set authorized key in alternate location
  ansible.posix.authorized_key:
    user: charlie
    state: present
    key: "{{ lookup('file', '/home/charlie/.ssh/id_rsa.pub') }}"
    path: /etc/ssh/authorized_keys/charlie
    manage_dir: false

- name: Set up multiple authorized keys
  ansible.posix.authorized_key:
    user: deploy
    state: present
    key: '{{ item }}'
  with_file:
    - public_keys/doe-jane
    - public_keys/doe-john

- name: Set authorized key defining key options
  ansible.posix.authorized_key:
    user: charlie
    state: present
    key: "{{ lookup('file', '/home/charlie/.ssh/id_rsa.pub') }}"
    key_options: 'no-port-forwarding,from="10.0.1.1"'

- name: Set authorized key without validating the TLS/SSL certificates
  ansible.posix.authorized_key:
    user: charlie
    state: present
    key: https://github.com/user.keys
    validate_certs: false

- name: Set authorized key, removing all the authorized keys already set
  ansible.posix.authorized_key:
    user: root
    key: "{{ lookup('file', 'public_keys/doe-jane') }}"
    state: present
    exclusive: true

- name: Set authorized key for user ubuntu copying it from current user
  ansible.posix.authorized_key:
    user: ubuntu
    state: present
    key: "{{ lookup('file', lookup('env','HOME') + '/.ssh/id_rsa.pub') }}"

Return Values

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

Key	Description
exclusive boolean	If the key has been forced to be exclusive or not. Returned: success Sample: false
key string	The key that the module was running against. Returned: success Sample: "https://github.com/user.keys"
key_option string	Key options related to the key. Returned: success
keyfile string	Path for authorized key file. Returned: success Sample: "/home/user/.ssh/authorized_keys"
manage_dir boolean	Whether this module managed the directory of the authorized key file. Returned: success Sample: true
path string	Alternate path to the authorized_keys file Returned: success
state string	Whether the given key (with the given key_options) should or should not be in the file Returned: success Sample: "present"
unique boolean	Whether the key is unique Returned: success Sample: false
user string	The username on the remote host whose authorized_keys file will be modified Returned: success Sample: "user"
validate_certs boolean	This only applies if using a https url as the source of the keys. If set to false, the SSL certificates will not be validated. Returned: success Sample: true

Authors

• Ansible Core Team

Collection links

• Issue Tracker
• Repository (Sources)