# openssl_publickey – Generate an OpenSSL public key from its private key

- Synopsis
- Requirements
- Parameters
- See Also
- Examples
- Return Values
- Status

## 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

- This module is not guaranteed to have a backwards compatible interface. [preview]
- This module is maintained by the Ansible Community. [community]

### Authors

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

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