community.crypto.acme_inspect module – Send direct requests to an ACME server

Note

This module is part of the community.crypto collection (version 2.18.0).

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.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.acme_inspect.

Synopsis

  • Allows to send direct requests to an ACME server with the ACME protocol, which is supported by CAs such as Let’s Encrypt.

  • This module can be used to debug failed certificate request attempts, for example when community.crypto.acme_certificate fails or encounters a problem which you wish to investigate.

  • The module can also be used to directly access features of an ACME servers which are not yet supported by the Ansible ACME modules.

Requirements

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

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

account_key_content

string

Content of the ACME account RSA or Elliptic Curve key.

Mutually exclusive with account_key_src.

Required if account_key_src is not used.

Warning: the content will be written into a temporary file, which will be deleted by Ansible when the module completes. Since this is an important private key — it can be used to change the account key, or to revoke your certificates without knowing their private keys —, this might not be acceptable.

In case cryptography is used, the content is not written into a temporary file. It can still happen that it is written to disk by Ansible in the process of moving the module with its argument to the node where it is executed.

account_key_passphrase

string

added in community.crypto 1.6.0

Phassphrase to use to decode the account key.

Note: this is not supported by the openssl backend, only by the cryptography backend.

account_key_src

aliases: account_key

path

Path to a file containing the ACME account RSA or Elliptic Curve key.

Private keys can be created with the community.crypto.openssl_privatekey or community.crypto.openssl_privatekey_pipe modules. If the requisite (cryptography) is not available, keys can also be created directly with the openssl command line tool: RSA keys can be created with openssl genrsa .... Elliptic curve keys can be created with openssl ecparam -genkey .... Any other tool creating private keys in PEM format can be used as well.

Mutually exclusive with account_key_content.

Required if account_key_content is not used.

account_uri

string

If specified, assumes that the account URI is as given. If the account key does not match this account, or an account with this URI does not exist, the module fails.

acme_directory

string / required

The ACME directory to use. This is the entry point URL to access the ACME CA server API.

For safety reasons the default is set to the Let’s Encrypt staging server (for the ACME v1 protocol). This will create technically correct, but untrusted certificates.

For Let’s Encrypt, all staging endpoints can be found here: https://letsencrypt.org/docs/staging-environment/. For Buypass, all endpoints can be found here: https://community.buypass.com/t/63d4ay/buypass-go-ssl-endpoints

For Let’s Encrypt, the production directory URL for ACME v2 is https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory.

For Buypass, the production directory URL for ACME v2 and v1 is https://api.buypass.com/acme/directory.

For ZeroSSL, the production directory URL for ACME v2 is https://acme.zerossl.com/v2/DV90.

For Sectigo, the production directory URL for ACME v2 is https://acme-qa.secure.trust-provider.com/v2/DV.

The notes for this module contain a list of ACME services this module has been tested against.

acme_version

integer / required

The ACME version of the endpoint.

Must be 1 for the classic Let’s Encrypt and Buypass ACME endpoints, or 2 for standardized ACME v2 endpoints.

The value 1 is deprecated since community.crypto 2.0.0 and will be removed from community.crypto 3.0.0.

Choices:

  • 1

  • 2

content

string

An encoded JSON object which will be sent as the content if method is post.

Required when method is post, and not allowed otherwise.

fail_on_acme_error

boolean

If method is post or get, make the module fail in case an ACME error is returned.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

method

string

The method to use to access the given URL on the ACME server.

The value post executes an authenticated POST request. The content must be specified in the content option.

The value get executes an authenticated POST-as-GET request for ACME v2, and a regular GET request for ACME v1.

The value directory-only only retrieves the directory, without doing a request.

Choices:

  • "get" ← (default)

  • "post"

  • "directory-only"

request_timeout

integer

added in community.crypto 2.3.0

The time Ansible should wait for a response from the ACME API.

This timeout is applied to all HTTP(S) requests (HEAD, GET, POST).

Default: 10

select_crypto_backend

string

Determines which crypto backend to use.

The default choice is auto, which tries to use cryptography if available, and falls back to openssl.

If set to openssl, will try to use the openssl binary.

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

Choices:

  • "auto" ← (default)

  • "cryptography"

  • "openssl"

url

string

The URL to send the request to.

Must be specified if method is not directory-only.

validate_certs

boolean

Whether calls to the ACME directory will validate TLS certificates.

Warning: Should only ever be set to false for testing purposes, for example when testing against a local Pebble server.

Choices:

  • false

  • true ← (default)

Attributes

Attribute

Support

Description

action_group

Action groups: community.crypto.acme, acme

Use group/acme or group/community.crypto.acme in module_defaults to set defaults for this module.

check_mode

Support: none

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

diff_mode

Support: none

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

Notes

Note

  • The account_uri option must be specified for properly authenticated ACME v2 requests (except a new-account request).

  • Using the ansible tool, community.crypto.acme_inspect can be used to directly execute ACME requests without the need of writing a playbook. For example, the following command retrieves the ACME account with ID 1 from Let’s Encrypt (assuming /path/to/key is the correct private account key): ansible localhost -m acme_inspect -a "account_key_src=/path/to/key acme_directory=https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory acme_version=2 account_uri=https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/acct/1 method=get url=https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/acct/1"

  • If a new enough version of the cryptography library is available (see Requirements for details), it will be used instead of the openssl binary. This can be explicitly disabled or enabled with the select_crypto_backend option. Note that using the openssl binary will be slower and less secure, as private key contents always have to be stored on disk (see account_key_content).

  • Although the defaults are chosen so that the module can be used with the Let’s Encrypt CA, the module can in principle be used with any CA providing an ACME endpoint, such as Buypass Go SSL.

  • So far, the ACME modules have only been tested by the developers against Let’s Encrypt (staging and production), Buypass (staging and production), ZeroSSL (production), and Pebble testing server. We have got community feedback that they also work with Sectigo ACME Service for InCommon. If you experience problems with another ACME server, please create an issue to help us supporting it. Feedback that an ACME server not mentioned does work is also appreciated.

See Also

See also

Automatic Certificate Management Environment (ACME)

The specification of the ACME protocol (RFC 8555).

ACME TLS ALPN Challenge Extension

The specification of the tls-alpn-01 challenge (RFC 8737).

Examples

- name: Get directory
  community.crypto.acme_inspect:
    acme_directory: https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
    acme_version: 2
    method: directory-only
  register: directory

- name: Create an account
  community.crypto.acme_inspect:
    acme_directory: https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
    acme_version: 2
    account_key_src: /etc/pki/cert/private/account.key
    url: "{{ directory.newAccount}}"
    method: post
    content: '{"termsOfServiceAgreed":true}'
  register: account_creation
  # account_creation.headers.location contains the account URI
  # if creation was successful

- name: Get account information
  community.crypto.acme_inspect:
    acme_directory: https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
    acme_version: 2
    account_key_src: /etc/pki/cert/private/account.key
    account_uri: "{{ account_creation.headers.location }}"
    url: "{{ account_creation.headers.location }}"
    method: get

- name: Update account contacts
  community.crypto.acme_inspect:
    acme_directory: https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
    acme_version: 2
    account_key_src: /etc/pki/cert/private/account.key
    account_uri: "{{ account_creation.headers.location }}"
    url: "{{ account_creation.headers.location }}"
    method: post
    content: '{{ account_info | to_json }}'
  vars:
    account_info:
      # For valid values, see
      # https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc8555#section-7.3
      contact:
      - mailto:[email protected]

- name: Create certificate order
  community.crypto.acme_certificate:
    acme_directory: https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
    acme_version: 2
    account_key_src: /etc/pki/cert/private/account.key
    account_uri: "{{ account_creation.headers.location }}"
    csr: /etc/pki/cert/csr/sample.com.csr
    fullchain_dest: /etc/httpd/ssl/sample.com-fullchain.crt
    challenge: http-01
  register: certificate_request

# Assume something went wrong. certificate_request.order_uri contains
# the order URI.

- name: Get order information
  community.crypto.acme_inspect:
    acme_directory: https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
    acme_version: 2
    account_key_src: /etc/pki/cert/private/account.key
    account_uri: "{{ account_creation.headers.location }}"
    url: "{{ certificate_request.order_uri }}"
    method: get
  register: order

- name: Get first authz for order
  community.crypto.acme_inspect:
    acme_directory: https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
    acme_version: 2
    account_key_src: /etc/pki/cert/private/account.key
    account_uri: "{{ account_creation.headers.location }}"
    url: "{{ order.output_json.authorizations[0] }}"
    method: get
  register: authz

- name: Get HTTP-01 challenge for authz
  community.crypto.acme_inspect:
    acme_directory: https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
    acme_version: 2
    account_key_src: /etc/pki/cert/private/account.key
    account_uri: "{{ account_creation.headers.location }}"
    url: "{{ authz.output_json.challenges | selectattr('type', 'equalto', 'http-01') }}"
    method: get
  register: http01challenge

- name: Activate HTTP-01 challenge manually
  community.crypto.acme_inspect:
    acme_directory: https://acme-staging-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
    acme_version: 2
    account_key_src: /etc/pki/cert/private/account.key
    account_uri: "{{ account_creation.headers.location }}"
    url: "{{ http01challenge.url }}"
    method: post
    content: '{}'

Return Values

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

Key

Description

directory

dictionary

The ACME directory’s content

Returned: always

Sample: {"a85k3x9f91A4": "https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/adding-random-entries-to-the-directory/33417", "keyChange": "https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/key-change", "meta": {"caaIdentities": ["letsencrypt.org"], "termsOfService": "https://letsencrypt.org/documents/LE-SA-v1.2-November-15-2017.pdf", "website": "https://letsencrypt.org"}, "newAccount": "https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/new-acct", "newNonce": "https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/new-nonce", "newOrder": "https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/new-order", "revokeCert": "https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/revoke-cert"}

headers

dictionary

The request’s HTTP headers (with lowercase keys)

Returned: always

Sample: {"boulder-requester": "12345", "cache-control": "max-age=0, no-cache, no-store", "connection": "close", "content-length": "904", "content-type": "application/json", "cookies": {}, "cookies_string": "", "date": "Wed, 07 Nov 2018 12:34:56 GMT", "expires": "Wed, 07 Nov 2018 12:44:56 GMT", "link": "<https://letsencrypt.org/documents/LE-SA-v1.2-November-15-2017.pdf>;rel=\"terms-of-service\"", "msg": "OK (904 bytes)", "pragma": "no-cache", "replay-nonce": "1234567890abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGH", "server": "nginx", "status": 200, "strict-transport-security": "max-age=604800", "url": "https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/acme/acct/46161", "x-frame-options": "DENY"}

output_json

dictionary

The output parsed as JSON

Returned: if output can be parsed as JSON

Sample: [{"id": 12345}, {"key": [{"kty": "RSA"}, "..."]}]

output_text

string

The raw text output

Returned: always

Sample: "{\n  \"id\": 12345,\n  \"key\": {\n    \"kty\": \"RSA\",\n ..."

Authors

  • Felix Fontein (@felixfontein)