certificate
Certificate System Role
Role for managing TLS/SSL certificate issuance and renewal
Linux system role to issue and renew SSL certificates.
Basic usage:
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns: www.example.com
ca: self-sign
roles:
- linux-system-roles.certificate
On a RPM-based system this will place the certificate in /etc/pki/tls/certs/mycert.crt
and the key in /etc/pki/tls/private/mycert.key
.
Requirements
See below
Collection requirements
The role requires external collections only for management of rpm-ostree
nodes. Please run the following command to install them if you need to manage
rpm-ostree
nodes:
ansible-galaxy collection install -vv -r meta/collection-requirements.yml
Variables
Parameter | Description | Type | Required | Default |
---|---|---|---|---|
certificate_wait | If the task should wait for the certificate to be issued. | bool | no | yes |
certificate_requests | A list of dicts representing each certificate to be issued. See certificate_requests. | list | no | - |
certificate_requests
Note: Fields such as common_name
, country
, state
, locality
,
organization
, organizational_unit
, email
, key_usage
, and
extended_key_usage
that can be included in the certificate request
are defined by the RFC 5280.
Note: Be aware that the CA might not honor all the requested fields.
For example, even if a request include country: US
, the CA might issue
the certificate without country
in it's subject.
Note: The fields dns
, email
and ip
are used to define the Subject
Alternative Names (SAN).
Parameter | Description | Type | Required | Default |
---|---|---|---|---|
name | Name of the certificate. A full path can be used to choose the directory where files will be stored. | str | yes | - |
ca | CA that will issue the certificate. See CAs and Providers. | str | yes | - |
dns | Domain (or list of domains) to be included in the certificate. Also can provide the default value for common_name. | str or list | no | - |
Email (or list of emails) to be included in the certificate. | str or list | no | - | |
ip | IP, or list of IPs, to be included in the certificate. IPs can be IPv4, IPv6 or both. Also can provide the default value for common_name. | str or list | no | - |
auto_renew | Indicates if the certificate should be renewed automatically before it expires. | bool | no | yes |
owner | User name (or user id) for the certificate and key files. | str | no | User running Ansible |
group | Group name (or group id) for the certificate and key files. | str | no | Group running Ansible |
mode | The file system permissions for the certificate and key files. | |||
raw | no | - | ||
key_size | Generate keys with a specific keysize in bits. | int | no | 2048 - See key_size |
common_name | Common Name requested for the certificate subject. | str | no | See common_name |
country | Country code requested for the certificate subject. | str | no | - |
state | State requested for the certificate subject. | str | no | - |
locality | Locality requested for the certificate subject (usually city). | str | no | - |
organization | Organization requested for the certificate subject. | str | no | - |
organizational_unit | Organizational unit requested for the certificate subject. | str | no | - |
contact_email | Contact email requested for the certificate subject. | str | no | - |
key_usage | Allowed Key Usage for the certificate. For valid values see: key_usage. | list | no | See key_usage |
extended_key_usage | Extended Key Usage attributes to be present in the certificate request. | list | no | See extended_key_usage |
run_before | Command that should run before saving the certificate. See run hooks. | str | no | - |
run_after | Command that should run after saving the certificate. See run hooks. | str | no | - |
principal | Kerberos principal. | str | no | - |
provider | The underlying method used to request and manage the certificate. | str | no | Varies by CA |
common_name
If common_name
is not set the role will attempt to use the first
value of dns
or ip
, respectively, as the default. If dns
and
ip
are also not set, common_name
will not be included in the certificate.
key_size
Recommended minimal-values for a certificate key size, from different
organizations, vary across time. In the attempt to provide safe settings,
the default minimal-value for key_size
will be increased over time.
If you want your certificates to always keep the same key_size
when
renewed, set this variable to the desired value.
key_usage
Valid values for key_usage
are:
- digitalSignature
- nonRepudiation
- keyEncipherment
- dataEncipherment
- keyAgreement
- keyCertSign
- cRLSign
- encipherOnly
- decipherOnly
The defaults for key_usage
are:
- digitalSignature
- keyEncipherment
extended_key_usage
Any valid oid can be used to set one or more extended_key_usage
.
In addition to that there is also a list of known aliases that
will be recognized by the role:
- id-kp-serverAuth
- id-kp-clientAuth
- id-kp-codeSigning
- id-kp-emailProtection
- id-kp-timeStamping
- id-kp-OCSPSigning
- id-kp-ipsecEndSystem
- id-kp-ipsecTunnel
- id-kp-ipsecUser
If extended_key_usage
is not set the role will default to:
- id-kp-serverAuth
- id-kp-clientAuth
run hooks
Sometimes you need to execute a command just before a certificate is
renewed and another command just after. In order to do that use
run_before
and run_after
.
The value provided to run_before
and run_after
will be wrapped and
stored in shell script files that later will be executed by the provider.
CAs and Providers
CA | Providers | CA description | Requirements |
---|---|---|---|
self-sign | certmonger* | Issue self-signed certificates from a local CA. | |
ipa | certmonger* | Issue certificates using the FreeIPA CA. | Host needs to be enrolled in a FreeIPA server. |
* Default provider.
CA represents the CA certificates that will be used to issue and sign the requested certificate. Provider represents the method used to send the certificate request to the CA and then retrieve the signed certificate.
If a user chooses self-sign
CA, with certmonger
as provider and, later on
decide to change the provider to openssl
, the CA certificates used in both
cases needs to be the same. Please note that openssl
is not yet a supported
provider and it's only mentioned here as an example.
Certmonger and SELinux
If SELinux is enforced, the certmonger
service is only able to write or edit
files in directories where the cert_t
context is present.
Additionally to that, if the scripts executed by run_before
and run_after
parameters need to write or edit files, those scripts also require the cert_t
context to be present prior to the role execution.
You can use the selinux
System Role to manage SELinux contexts.
For more information about certmonger
and SELinux requirements, see
certmonger_selinux(8) man pages.
Examples
Issuing a self-signed certificate
Issue a certificate for *.example.com
and place it in the standard
directory for the distribution.
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns: *.example.com
ca: self-sign
roles:
- linux-system-roles.certificate
You can find the directories for each distribution in the following locations:
Debian/Ubuntu:
- Certificates:
/etc/ssl/localcerts/certs/
- Keys:
/etc/ssl/localcerts/private/
- Certificates:
RHEL/CentOS/Fedora:
- Certificates:
/etc/pki/tls/certs/
- Keys:
/etc/pki/tls/private/
- Certificates:
Choosing where to place the certificates
Issue a certificate and key and place them in the specified location.
The example below creates a certificate file in
/another/path/mycert.crt
and a key file in /another/path/mycert.key
.
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: /another/path/mycert
dns: *.example.com
ca: self-sign
roles:
- linux-system-roles.certificate
Issuing certificates with multiple DNS, IP and Email
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns:
- www.example.com
- sub1.example.com
- sub2.example.com
- sub3.example.com
ip:
- 192.0.2.12
- 198.51.100.65
- 2001:db8::2:1
email:
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
ca: self-sign
roles:
- linux-system-roles.certificate
Setting common subject options
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns: www.example.com
common_name: www.example.com
ca: self-sign
country: US
state: NY
locality: New York
organization: Red Hat
organizational_unit: platform
email: [email protected]
roles:
- linux-system-roles.certificate
Setting the certificate key size
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns: www.example.com
ca: self-sign
key_size: 4096
roles:
- linux-system-roles.certificate
Setting the "Key Usage" and "Extended Key Usage" (EKU)
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns: www.example.com
ca: self-sign
key_usage:
- digitalSignature
- nonRepudiation
- keyEncipherment
extended_key_usage:
- id-kp-clientAuth
- id-kp-serverAuth
roles:
- linux-system-roles.certificate
Don't wait for the certificate to be issued
The certificate issuance can take several minutes depending on the CA. Because of that it's also possible to request the certificate but not actually wait for it.
This configuration affects all certificates: if certificate_wait
is
set to no
the role does not wait for any certificate to be issued.
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_wait: false
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns: www.example.com
ca: self-sign
roles:
- linux-system-roles.certificate
Setting a principal
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns: www.example.com
ca: self-sign
principal: HTTP/[email protected]
roles:
- linux-system-roles.certificate
Choosing to not auto-renew a certificate
By default certificates generated by the role are set for
auto-renewal. To disable that behavior set auto_renew: no
.
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns: www.example.com
ca: self-sign
auto_renew: no
roles:
- linux-system-roles.certificate
Using FreeIPA to issue a certificate
If your host is enrolled in a FreeIPA server, you also have the option
to use it's CA to issue your certificate. To do that, set ca: ipa
.
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns: www.example.com
principal: HTTP/[email protected]
ca: ipa
roles:
- linux-system-roles.certificate
Running a command before or after a certificate is issued
Sometimes you need to execute a command just before a certificate is
renewed and another command just after. To do so, use run_before
and run_after
.
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns: www.example.com
ca: self-sign
run_before: systemctl stop webserver.service
run_after: systemctl start webserver.service
roles:
- linux-system-roles.certificate
Setting the certificate owner and group
If you are using a certificate for a service, for example httpd, you need to set the certificate owner and group that will own the certificate. In the following example the owner and group are both set to httpd.
---
- hosts: webserver
vars:
certificate_requests:
- name: mycert
dns: www.example.com
ca: self-sign
owner: httpd
group: httpd
roles:
- linux-system-roles.certificate
Note that you can also use UID and GID instead of user and group names.
Compatibility
Currently supports CentOS 7+, RHEL 7+, Fedora. It has been tested with Debian 10.
rpm-ostree
See README-ostree.md
License
MIT
Author Information
Sergio Oliveira Campos (@seocam)
Role for managing TLS/SSL certificate issuance and renewal
ansible-galaxy install linux-system-roles/certificate