authorized_key – Adds or removes an SSH authorized key

From Get docs
Ansible/docs/2.7/modules/authorized key module


authorized_key – Adds or removes an SSH authorized key

Synopsis

  • Adds or removes SSH authorized keys for particular user accounts

Parameters

Parameter Choices/Defaults Comments

comment

-

added in 2.4

Change the comment on the public key. Rewriting the comment is useful in cases such as fetching it from GitHub or GitLab.

If no comment is specified, the existing comment will be kept.

exclusive

boolean

added in 1.9

  • no

  • yes

Whether to remove all other non-specified keys from the authorized_keys file. Multiple keys can be specified in a single key string value by separating them by newlines.

This option is not loop aware, so if you use with_ , it will be exclusive per iteration of the loop, if you want multiple keys in the file you need to pass them all to key in a single batch as mentioned above.

follow

boolean

added in 2.7

  • no

  • yes

Follow path symlink instead of replacing it

key

- / required

The SSH public key(s), as a string or (since 1.9) url (https://github.com/username.keys)

key_options

-

added in 1.4

A string of ssh key options to be prepended to the key in the authorized_keys file

manage_dir

boolean

  • no
  • yes

Whether this module should manage the directory of the authorized key file. If set, the module will create the directory, as well as set the owner and permissions of an existing directory. Be sure to set manage_dir=no if you are using an alternate directory for authorized_keys, as set with path, since you could lock yourself out of SSH access. See the example below.

path

-

Default:

"(homedir)+/.ssh/authorized_keys"

Alternate path to the authorized_keys file

state

-

  • present

  • absent

Whether the given key (with the given key_options) should or should not be in the file

user

- / required

The username on the remote host whose authorized_keys file will be modified

validate_certs

boolean

added in 2.1

  • no
  • yes

This only applies if using a https url as the source of the keys. If set to no, the SSL certificates will not be validated.

This should only set to no used on personally controlled sites using self-signed certificates as it avoids verifying the source site.

Prior to 2.1 the code worked as if this was set to yes.



Examples

- name: Set authorized key taken from file
  authorized_key:
    user: charlie
    state: present
    key: "{{ lookup('file', '/home/charlie/.ssh/id_rsa.pub') }}"

- name: Set authorized keys taken from url
  authorized_key:
    user: charlie
    state: present
    key: https://github.com/charlie.keys

- name: Set authorized key in alternate location
  authorized_key:
    user: charlie
    state: present
    key: "{{ lookup('file', '/home/charlie/.ssh/id_rsa.pub') }}"
    path: /etc/ssh/authorized_keys/charlie
    manage_dir: False

- name: Set up multiple authorized keys
  authorized_key:
    user: deploy
    state: present
    key: '{{ item }}'
  with_file:
    - public_keys/doe-jane
    - public_keys/doe-john

- name: Set authorized key defining key options
  authorized_key:
    user: charlie
    state: present
    key: "{{ lookup('file', '/home/charlie/.ssh/id_rsa.pub') }}"
    key_options: 'no-port-forwarding,from="10.0.1.1"'

- name: Set authorized key without validating the TLS/SSL certificates
  authorized_key:
    user: charlie
    state: present
    key: https://github.com/user.keys
    validate_certs: False

- name: Set authorized key, removing all the authorized keys already set
  authorized_key:
    user: root
    key: '{{ item }}'
    state: present
    exclusive: True
  with_file:
    - public_keys/doe-jane

- name: Set authorized key for user ubuntu copying it from current user
  authorized_key:
    user: ubuntu
    state: present
    key: "{{ lookup('file', lookup('env','HOME') + '/.ssh/id_rsa.pub') }}"

Return Values

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

Key Returned Description

exclusive

boolean

success

If the key has been forced to be exclusive or not.


key

string

success

The key that the module was running against.


Sample:

key_option

string

success

Key options related to the key.


keyfile

string

success

Path for authorized key file.


Sample:

/home/user/.ssh/authorized_keys

manage_dir

boolean

success

Whether this module managed the directory of the authorized key file.


Sample:

True

path

string

success

Alternate path to the authorized_keys file


state

string

success

Whether the given key (with the given key_options) should or should not be in the file


Sample:

present

unique

boolean

success

Whether the key is unique


user

string

success

The username on the remote host whose authorized_keys file will be modified


Sample:

user

validate_certs

boolean

success

This only applies if using a https url as the source of the keys. If set to no, the SSL certificates will not be validated.


Sample:

True




Status

Red Hat Support

More information about Red Hat’s support of this module is available from this Red Hat Knowledge Base article.

Authors

  • Ansible Core Team

Hint

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


© 2012–2018 Michael DeHaan
© 2018–2019 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/2.7/modules/authorized_key_module.html