openssl_publickey – Generate an OpenSSL public key from its private key

Synopsis

  • This module allows one to (re)generate OpenSSL public keys from their private keys.
  • Keys are generated in PEM or OpenSSH format.
  • The module can use the cryptography Python library, or the pyOpenSSL Python library. By default, it tries to detect which one is available. This can be overridden with the select_crypto_backend option. When format is OpenSSH, the cryptography backend has to be used. Please note that the PyOpenSSL backend was deprecated in Ansible 2.9 and will be removed in Ansible 2.13.”

Requirements

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

  • Either cryptography >= 1.2.3 (older versions might work as well)
  • Or pyOpenSSL >= 16.0.0
  • Needs cryptography >= 1.4 if format is OpenSSH

Parameters

Parameter Choices/Defaults Comments
attributes
string
The attributes the resulting file or directory should have.
To get supported flags look at the man page for chattr on the target system.
This string should contain the attributes in the same order as the one displayed by lsattr.
The = operator is assumed as default, otherwise + or - operators need to be included in the string.

aliases: attr
backup
boolean
added in 2.8
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
Create a backup file including a timestamp so you can get the original public key back if you overwrote it with a different one by accident.
force
boolean
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
Should the key be regenerated even it it already exists.
format
string
added in 2.4
    Choices:
  • OpenSSH
  • PEM ←
The format of the public key.
group
string
Name of the group that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown.
mode
string
The permissions the resulting file or directory should have.
For those used to /usr/bin/chmod remember that modes are actually octal numbers. You must either add a leading zero so that Ansible's YAML parser knows it is an octal number (like 0644 or 01777) or quote it (like '644' or '1777') so Ansible receives a string and can do its own conversion from string into number.
Giving Ansible a number without following one of these rules will end up with a decimal number which will have unexpected results.
As of Ansible 1.8, the mode may be specified as a symbolic mode (for example, u+rwx or u=rw,g=r,o=r).
As of Ansible 2.6, the mode may also be the special string preserve.
When set to preserve the file will be given the same permissions as the source file.
owner
string
Name of the user that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown.
path
path / required
Name of the file in which the generated TLS/SSL public key will be written.
privatekey_passphrase
string
added in 2.4
The passphrase for the private key.
privatekey_path
path
Path to the TLS/SSL private key from which to generate the public key.
Required if state is present.
select_crypto_backend
string
added in 2.9
    Choices:
  • auto ←
  • cryptography
  • pyopenssl
Determines which crypto backend to use.
The default choice is auto, which tries to use cryptography if available, and falls back to pyopenssl.
If set to pyopenssl, will try to use the pyOpenSSL library.
If set to cryptography, will try to use the cryptography library.
selevel
string
Default:
"s0"
The level part of the SELinux file context.
This is the MLS/MCS attribute, sometimes known as the range.
When set to _default, it will use the level portion of the policy if available.
serole
string
The role part of the SELinux file context.
When set to _default, it will use the role portion of the policy if available.
setype
string
The type part of the SELinux file context.
When set to _default, it will use the type portion of the policy if available.
seuser
string
The user part of the SELinux file context.
By default it uses the system policy, where applicable.
When set to _default, it will use the user portion of the policy if available.
state
string
    Choices:
  • absent
  • present ←
Whether the public key should exist or not, taking action if the state is different from what is stated.
unsafe_writes
boolean
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
Influence when to use atomic operation to prevent data corruption or inconsistent reads from the target file.
By default this module uses atomic operations to prevent data corruption or inconsistent reads from the target files, but sometimes systems are configured or just broken in ways that prevent this. One example is docker mounted files, which cannot be updated atomically from inside the container and can only be written in an unsafe manner.
This option allows Ansible to fall back to unsafe methods of updating files when atomic operations fail (however, it doesn't force Ansible to perform unsafe writes).
IMPORTANT! Unsafe writes are subject to race conditions and can lead to data corruption.

See Also

See also

openssl_certificate – Generate and/or check OpenSSL certificates
The official documentation on the openssl_certificate module.
openssl_csr – Generate OpenSSL Certificate Signing Request (CSR)
The official documentation on the openssl_csr module.
openssl_dhparam – Generate OpenSSL Diffie-Hellman Parameters
The official documentation on the openssl_dhparam module.
openssl_pkcs12 – Generate OpenSSL PKCS#12 archive
The official documentation on the openssl_pkcs12 module.
openssl_privatekey – Generate OpenSSL private keys
The official documentation on the openssl_privatekey module.

Examples

- name: Generate an OpenSSL public key in PEM format
  openssl_publickey:
    path: /etc/ssl/public/ansible.com.pem
    privatekey_path: /etc/ssl/private/ansible.com.pem

- name: Generate an OpenSSL public key in OpenSSH v2 format
  openssl_publickey:
    path: /etc/ssl/public/ansible.com.pem
    privatekey_path: /etc/ssl/private/ansible.com.pem
    format: OpenSSH

- name: Generate an OpenSSL public key with a passphrase protected private key
  openssl_publickey:
    path: /etc/ssl/public/ansible.com.pem
    privatekey_path: /etc/ssl/private/ansible.com.pem
    privatekey_passphrase: ansible

- name: Force regenerate an OpenSSL public key if it already exists
  openssl_publickey:
    path: /etc/ssl/public/ansible.com.pem
    privatekey_path: /etc/ssl/private/ansible.com.pem
    force: yes

- name: Remove an OpenSSL public key
  openssl_publickey:
    path: /etc/ssl/public/ansible.com.pem
    privatekey_path: /etc/ssl/private/ansible.com.pem
    state: absent

Return Values

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

Key Returned Description
backup_file
string
changed and if backup is yes
Name of backup file created.

Sample:
/path/to/publickey.pem.2019-03-09@11:22~
filename
string
changed or success
Path to the generated TLS/SSL public key file.

Sample:
/etc/ssl/public/ansible.com.pem
fingerprint
dictionary
changed or success
The fingerprint of the public key. Fingerprint will be generated for each hashlib.algorithms available.
Requires PyOpenSSL >= 16.0 for meaningful output.

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'}
format
string
changed or success
The format of the public key (PEM, OpenSSH, ...).

Sample:
PEM
privatekey
string
changed or success
Path to the TLS/SSL private key the public key was generated from.

Sample:
/etc/ssl/private/ansible.com.pem


Status

Authors

  • Yanis Guenane (@Spredzy)
  • Felix Fontein (@felixfontein)

Hint

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