community.windows.laps_password lookup – Retrieves the LAPS password for a server.

Note

This lookup plugin is part of the community.windows collection (version 1.13.0).

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.windows. You need further requirements to be able to use this lookup plugin, see Requirements for details.

To use it in a playbook, specify: community.windows.laps_password.

Synopsis

Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the local controller node that executes this lookup.

  • python-ldap

Terms

Parameter

Comments

Terms

string / required

The host name to retrieve the LAPS password for.

This is the Common Name (CN) of the host.

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

allow_plaintext

boolean

When set to yes, will allow traffic to be sent unencrypted.

It is highly recommended to not touch this to avoid any credentials being exposed over the network.

Use scheme=ldaps, auth=gssapi, or start_tls=yes to ensure the traffic is encrypted.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

auth

string

The type of authentication to use when connecting to the Active Directory server

When using simple, the username and password options must be set. If not using scheme=ldaps or start_tls=True then these credentials are exposed in plaintext in the network traffic.

It is recommended ot use gssapi as it will encrypt the traffic automatically.

When using gssapi, run kinit before running Ansible to get a valid Kerberos ticket.

You cannot use gssapi when either scheme=ldaps or start_tls=True is set.

Choices:

  • "simple"

  • "gssapi" ← (default)

ca_cert

aliases: cacert_file

string

The path to a CA certificate PEM file to use for certificate validation.

Certificate validation is used when scheme=ldaps or start_tls=yes.

This may fail on hosts with an older OpenLDAP install like MacOS, this will have to be updated before reinstalling python-ldap to get working again.

domain

string / required

The domain to search in to retrieve the LAPS password.

This could either be a Windows domain name visible to the Ansible controller from DNS or a specific domain controller FQDN.

Supports either just the domain/host name or an explicit LDAP URI with the domain/host already filled in.

If the URI is set, port and scheme are ignored.

password

string

The password for username.

Required when username is set.

port

integer

The LDAP port to communicate over.

If kdc is already an LDAP URI then this is ignored.

scheme

string

The LDAP scheme to use.

When using ldap, it is recommended to set auth=gssapi, or start_tls=yes, otherwise traffic will be in plaintext.

The Active Directory host must be configured for ldaps with a certificate before it can be used.

If kdc is already an LDAP URI then this is ignored.

Choices:

  • "ldap" ← (default)

  • "ldaps"

search_base

string

Changes the search base used when searching for the host in Active Directory.

Will default to search in the defaultNamingContext of the Active Directory server.

If multiple matches are found then a more explicit search_base is required so only 1 host is found.

If searching a larger Active Directory database, it is recommended to narrow the search_base for performance reasons.

start_tls

boolean

When scheme=ldap, will use the StartTLS extension to encrypt traffic sent over the wire.

This requires the Active Directory to be set up with a certificate that supports StartTLS.

This is ignored when scheme=ldaps as the traffic is already encrypted.

Choices:

  • false ← (default)

  • true

username

string

Required when using auth=simple.

The username to authenticate with.

Recommended to use the username in the UPN format, e.g. username@DOMAIN.COM.

This is required when auth=simple and is not supported when auth=gssapi.

Call kinit outside of Ansible if auth=gssapi is required.

validate_certs

string

When using scheme=ldaps or start_tls=yes, this controls the certificate validation behaviour.

demand will fail if no certificate or an invalid certificate is provided.

try will fail for invalid certificates but will continue if no certificate is provided.

allow will request and check a certificate but will continue even if it is invalid.

never will not request a certificate from the server so no validation occurs.

Choices:

  • "never"

  • "allow"

  • "try"

  • "demand" ← (default)

Notes

Note

  • If a host was found but had no LAPS password attribute ms-Mcs-AdmPwd, the lookup will fail.

  • Due to the sensitive nature of the data travelling across the network, it is highly recommended to run with either auth=gssapi, scheme=ldaps, or start_tls=yes.

  • Failing to run with one of the above settings will result in the account credentials as well as the LAPS password to be sent in plaintext.

  • Some scenarios may not work when running on a host with an older OpenLDAP install like MacOS. It is recommended to install the latest OpenLDAP version and build python-ldap against this, see https://keathmilligan.net/python-ldap-and-macos for more information.

Examples

# This isn't mandatory but it is a way to call kinit from within Ansible before calling the lookup
- name: call kinit to retrieve Kerberos token
  expect:
    command: kinit [email protected]
    responses:
      (?i)password: SecretPass1
  no_log: True

- name: Get the LAPS password using Kerberos auth, relies on kinit already being called
  set_fact:
    ansible_password: "{{ lookup('community.windows.laps_password', 'SERVER', domain='dc01.ansible.com') }}"

- name: Specific the domain host using an explicit LDAP URI
  set_fact:
    ansible_password: "{{ lookup('community.windows.laps_password', 'SERVER', domain='ldap://ansible.com:389') }}"

- name: Use Simple auth over LDAPS
  set_fact:
    ansible_password: "{{ lookup('community.windows.laps_password', 'server',
                                 domain='dc01.ansible.com',
                                 auth='simple',
                                 scheme='ldaps',
                                 username='[email protected]',
                                 password='SuperSecret123') }}"

- name: Use Simple auth with LDAP and StartTLS
  set_fact:
    ansible_password: "{{ lookup('community.windows.laps_password', 'app01',
                                 domain='dc01.ansible.com',
                                 auth='simple',
                                 start_tls=True,
                                 username='[email protected]',
                                 password='SuperSecret123') }}"

- name: Narrow down the search base to a an OU
  set_fact:
    ansible_password: "{{ lookup('community.windows.laps_password', 'sql10',
                                 domain='dc01.ansible.com',
                                 search_base='OU=Databases,DC=ansible,DC=com') }}"

- name: Set certificate file to use when validating the TLS certificate
  set_fact:
    ansible_password: "{{ lookup('community.windows.laps_password', 'windows-pc',
                                 domain='dc01.ansible.com',
                                 start_tls=True,
                                 ca_cert='/usr/local/share/certs/ad.pem') }}"

Return Value

Key

Description

Return value

string

The LAPS password(s) for the host(s) requested.

Returned: success

Authors

  • Jordan Borean (@jborean93)

Hint

Configuration entries for each entry type have a low to high priority order. For example, a variable that is lower in the list will override a variable that is higher up.