openssl_csr - Generate OpenSSL Certificate Signing Request (CSR)

New in version 2.4.

Synopsis

Requirements

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

  • python-pyOpenSSL >= 0.15

Parameters

Parameter Choices/Defaults Comments
attributes
(added in 2.3)
Attributes the 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.
= operator is assumed as default, otherwise + or - operators need to be included in the string.

aliases: attr
basic_constraints
(added in 2.5)
Indicates basic constraints, such as if the certificate is a CA.

aliases: basicConstraints
basic_constraints_critical
(added in 2.5)
Should the basicConstraints extension be considered as critical

aliases: basicConstraints_critical
common_name
commonName field of the certificate signing request subject

aliases: CN, commonName
country_name
countryName field of the certificate signing request subject

aliases: C, countryName
digest Default:
sha256
Digest used when signing the certificate signing request with the private key
email_address
emailAddress field of the certificate signing request subject

aliases: E, emailAddress
extended_key_usage
Additional restrictions (e.g. client authentication, server authentication) on the allowed purposes for which the public key may be used.
This can either be a 'comma separated string' or a YAML list.

aliases: extKeyUsage, extendedKeyUsage
extended_key_usage_critical
Should the extkeyUsage extension be considered as critical

aliases: extKeyUsage_critical, extendedKeyUsage_critical
force
bool
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
Should the certificate signing request be forced regenerated by this ansible module
group
Name of the group that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown.
key_usage
This defines the purpose (e.g. encipherment, signature, certificate signing) of the key contained in the certificate.
This can either be a 'comma separated string' or a YAML list.

aliases: keyUsage
key_usage_critical
Should the keyUsage extension be considered as critical

aliases: keyUsage_critical
locality_name
localityName field of the certificate signing request subject

aliases: L, localityName
mode
Mode the file or directory should be. 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 version 1.8, the mode may be specified as a symbolic mode (for example, u+rwx or u=rw,g=r,o=r).
ocsp_must_staple
(added in 2.5)
Indicates that the certificate should contain the OCSP Must Staple extension (https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7633).

aliases: ocspMustStaple
ocsp_must_staple_critical
(added in 2.5)
Should the OCSP Must Staple extension be considered as critical
Warning: according to the RFC, this extension should not be marked as critical, as old clients not knowing about OCSP Must Staple are required to reject such certificates (see https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7633#section-4).

aliases: ocspMustStaple_critical
organization_name
organizationName field of the certificate signing request subject

aliases: O, organizationName
organizational_unit_name
organizationalUnitName field of the certificate signing request subject

aliases: OU, organizationalUnitName
owner
Name of the user that should own the file/directory, as would be fed to chown.
path
required
Name of the file into which the generated OpenSSL certificate signing request will be written
privatekey_passphrase
The passphrase for the privatekey.
privatekey_path
required
Path to the privatekey to use when signing the certificate signing request
selevel Default:
s0
Level part of the SELinux file context. This is the MLS/MCS attribute, sometimes known as the range. _default feature works as for seuser.
serole
Role part of SELinux file context, _default feature works as for seuser.
setype
Type part of SELinux file context, _default feature works as for seuser.
seuser
User part of SELinux file context. Will default to system policy, if applicable. If set to _default, it will use the user portion of the policy if available.
state
    Choices:
  • present ←
  • absent
Whether the certificate signing request should exist or not, taking action if the state is different from what is stated.
state_or_province_name
stateOrProvinceName field of the certificate signing request subject

aliases: ST, stateOrProvinceName
subject
(added in 2.5)
Key/value pairs that will be present in the subject name field of the certificate signing request.
If you need to specify more than one value with the same key, use a list as value.
subject_alt_name
SAN extension to attach to the certificate signing request
This can either be a 'comma separated string' or a YAML list.
Values should be prefixed by their options. (i.e., email, URI, DNS, RID, IP, dirName, otherName and the ones specific to your CA)

aliases: subjectAltName
subject_alt_name_critical
Should the subjectAltName extension be considered as critical

aliases: subjectAltName_critical
unsafe_writes
bool

(added in 2.2)
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
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.
version Default:
1
Version of the certificate signing request

Notes

Note

  • If the certificate signing request already exists it will be checked whether subjectAltName, keyUsage, extendedKeyUsage and basicConstraints only contain the requested values, whether OCSP Must Staple is as requested, and if the request was signed by the given private key.

Examples

# Generate an OpenSSL Certificate Signing Request
- openssl_csr:
    path: /etc/ssl/csr/www.ansible.com.csr
    privatekey_path: /etc/ssl/private/ansible.com.pem
    common_name: www.ansible.com

# Generate an OpenSSL Certificate Signing Request with a
# passphrase protected private key
- openssl_csr:
    path: /etc/ssl/csr/www.ansible.com.csr
    privatekey_path: /etc/ssl/private/ansible.com.pem
    privatekey_passphrase: ansible
    common_name: www.ansible.com

# Generate an OpenSSL Certificate Signing Request with Subject information
- openssl_csr:
    path: /etc/ssl/csr/www.ansible.com.csr
    privatekey_path: /etc/ssl/private/ansible.com.pem
    country_name: FR
    organization_name: Ansible
    email_address: [email protected]
    common_name: www.ansible.com

# Generate an OpenSSL Certificate Signing Request with subjectAltName extension
- openssl_csr:
    path: /etc/ssl/csr/www.ansible.com.csr
    privatekey_path: /etc/ssl/private/ansible.com.pem
    subject_alt_name: 'DNS:www.ansible.com,DNS:m.ansible.com'

# Generate an OpenSSL CSR with subjectAltName extension with dynamic list
- openssl_csr:
    path: /etc/ssl/csr/www.ansible.com.csr
    privatekey_path: /etc/ssl/private/ansible.com.pem
    subject_alt_name: "{{ item.value | map('regex_replace', '^', 'DNS:') | list }}"
  with_dict:
    dns_server:
    - www.ansible.com
    - m.ansible.com

# Force re-generate an OpenSSL Certificate Signing Request
- openssl_csr:
    path: /etc/ssl/csr/www.ansible.com.csr
    privatekey_path: /etc/ssl/private/ansible.com.pem
    force: True
    common_name: www.ansible.com

# Generate an OpenSSL Certificate Signing Request with special key usages
- openssl_csr:
    path: /etc/ssl/csr/www.ansible.com.csr
    privatekey_path: /etc/ssl/private/ansible.com.pem
    common_name: www.ansible.com
    key_usage:
      - digitalSignature
      - keyAgreement
    extended_key_usage:
      - clientAuth

# Generate an OpenSSL Certificate Signing Request with OCSP Must Staple
- openssl_csr:
    path: /etc/ssl/csr/www.ansible.com.csr
    privatekey_path: /etc/ssl/private/ansible.com.pem
    common_name: www.ansible.com
    ocsp_must_staple: true

Return Values

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

Key Returned Description
basicConstraints
list
 changed or success
Indicates if the certificate belongs to a CA

Sample:
['CA:TRUE', 'pathLenConstraint:0']
extendedKeyUsage
list
 changed or success
Additional restriction on the public key purposes

Sample:
['clientAuth']
filename
string
 changed or success
Path to the generated Certificate Signing Request

Sample:
/etc/ssl/csr/www.ansible.com.csr
keyUsage
list
 changed or success
Purpose for which the public key may be used

Sample:
['digitalSignature', 'keyAgreement']
ocsp_must_staple
bool
 changed or success
Indicates whether the certificate has the OCSP Must Staple feature enabled
privatekey
string
 changed or success
Path to the TLS/SSL private key the CSR was generated for

Sample:
/etc/ssl/private/ansible.com.pem
subject
list
 changed or success
A list of the subject tuples attached to the CSR

Sample:
[('CN', 'www.ansible.com'), ('O', 'Ansible')]
subjectAltName
list
 changed or success
The alternative names this CSR is valid for

Sample:
['DNS:www.ansible.com', 'DNS:m.ansible.com']


Status

This module is flagged as preview which means that it is not guaranteed to have a backwards compatible interface.

Maintenance

This module is flagged as community which means that it is maintained by the Ansible Community. See Module Maintenance & Support for more info.

For a list of other modules that are also maintained by the Ansible Community, see here.

Author

  • Yanis Guenane (@Spredzy)

Hint

If you notice any issues in this documentation you can edit this document to improve it.