OpenSSH Server
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This role configures the OpenSSH daemon. It:
-
By default configures the SSH daemon with the normal OS defaults.
-
Works across a variety of
UN*X
distributions -
Can be configured by dict or simple variables
-
Supports Match sets
-
Supports all
sshd_config
options. Templates are programmatically generated. (seemeta/make_option_lists
) -
Tests the
sshd_config
before reloading sshd.
WARNING Misconfiguration of this role can lock you out of your server! Please test your configuration and its interaction with your users configuration before using in production!
WARNING Digital Ocean allows root with passwords via SSH on Debian and
Ubuntu. This is not the default assigned by this module - it will set
PermitRootLogin without-password
which will allow access via SSH key
but not via simple password. If you need this functionality, be sure to
set sshd_PermitRootLogin yes
for those hosts.
Requirements
Tested on:
-
Ubuntu precise, trusty, xenial, bionic, focal, jammy
-
Debian wheezy, jessie, stretch, buster, bullseye
-
EL 6, 7, 8, 9 derived distributions
-
All Fedora
-
Latest Alpine
-
FreeBSD 10.1
-
OpenBSD 6.0
-
AIX 7.1, 7.2
-
OpenWrt 21.03
It will likely work on other flavours and more direct support via suitable vars/ files is welcome.
Optional requirements
If you want to use advanced functionality of this role that can
configure firewall and selinux for you, which is mostly useful when
custom port is used, the role requires additional collections which are
specified in meta/collection-requirements.yml
. These are not
automatically installed. You must install them like this:
ansible-galaxy install -vv -r meta/collection-requirements.yml
For more information, see sshd_manage_firewall
and
sshd_manage_selinux
options below. These roles are supported only on
Red Hat based Linux.
Role variables
Unconfigured, this role will provide a sshd_config
that matches the OS
default, minus the comments and in a different order.
-
sshd_enable
If set to false, the role will be completely disabled. Defaults to true.
-
sshd_skip_defaults
If set to true, don’t apply default values. This means that you must
have a complete set of configuration defaults via either the sshd
dict, or sshd_Key
variables. Defaults to false unless
sshd_config_namespace
is set or sshd_config_file
points to a drop-in
directory to avoid recursive include.
-
sshd_manage_service
If set to false, the service/daemon won’t be managed at all, i.e.
will not try to enable on boot or start or reload the service. Defaults
to true unless: Running inside a docker container (it is assumed
ansible is used during build phase) or AIX (Ansible service
module
does not currently support enabled
for AIX)
-
sshd_allow_reload
If set to false, a reload of sshd wont happen on change. This can help
with troubleshooting. You’ll need to manually reload sshd if you want to
apply the changed configuration. Defaults to the same value as
sshd_manage_service
. (Except on AIX, where sshd_manage_service
is
default false, but sshd_allow_reload
is default true)
-
sshd_install_service
If set to true, the role will install service files for the ssh service. Defaults to false.
The templates for the service files to be used are pointed to by the variables
-
sshd_service_template_service
(default:templates/sshd.service.j2
) -
sshd_service_template_at_service
(default:templates/sshd@.service.j2
) -
sshd_service_template_socket
(default:templates/sshd.socket.j2
)
Using these variables, you can use your own custom templates. With the
above default templates, the name of the installed ssh service will be
provided by the sshd_service
variable.
-
sshd_manage_firewall
If set to true, the the SSH port(s) will be opened in firewall. Note, this works only on Red Hat based OS. The default is false.
Note
|
sshd_manage_firewall is limited to adding ports. It cannot be
used for removing ports. If you want to remove ports, you will need to
use the firewall system role directly. |
-
sshd_manage_selinux
If set to true, the the selinux will be configured to allow sshd listening on the given SSH port(s). Note, this works only on Red Hat based OS. The default is false.
Note
|
sshd_manage_selinux is limited to adding policy. It cannot be
used for removing policy. If you want to remove ports, you will need
to use the selinux system role directly. |
-
sshd
A dict containing configuration. e.g.
sshd:
Compression: delayed
ListenAddress:
- 0.0.0.0
-
sshd_...
Simple variables can be used rather than a dict. Simple values override dict values. e.g.:
sshd_Compression: off
In all cases, booleans are correctly rendered as yes and no in sshd configuration. Lists can be used for multiline configuration items. e.g.
sshd_ListenAddress:
- 0.0.0.0
- '::'
Renders as:
ListenAddress 0.0.0.0
ListenAddress ::
-
sshd_match
,sshd_match_1
throughsshd_match_9
A list of dicts or just a dict for a Match section. Note, that these
variables do not override match blocks as defined in the sshd
dict.
All of the sources will be reflected in the resulting configuration
file. The use of sshd_match_*
variant is deprecated and no longer
recommended.
-
sshd_backup
When set to false, the original sshd_config
file is not backed up.
Default is true.
-
sshd_sysconfig
On RHEL-based systems, sysconfig is used for configuring more details of
sshd service. If set to true, this role will manage also the
/etc/sysconfig/sshd
configuration file based on the following
configurations. Default is false.
-
sshd_sysconfig_override_crypto_policy
In RHEL8-based systems, this can be used to override system-wide crypto policy by setting to true. Without this option, changes to ciphers, MACs, public key algorithms will have no effect on the resulting service in RHEL8. Defaults to false.
-
sshd_sysconfig_use_strong_rng
In RHEL-based systems (before RHEL9), this can be used to force sshd to reseed openssl random number generator with the given amount of bytes as an argument. The default is 0, which disables this functionality. It is not recommended to turn this on if the system does not have hardware random number generator.
-
sshd_config_file
The path where the openssh configuration produced by this role should be saved. This is useful mostly when generating configuration snippets to Include from drop-in directory (default in Fedora and RHEL9).
When this path points to a drop-in directory (like
/etc/ssh/sshd_confg.d/00-custom.conf
), the main configuration file
(defined with the variable sshd_main_config_file
) is checked to
contain a proper Include
directive.
-
sshd_config_namespace
By default (null), the role defines whole content of the configuration
file including system defaults. You can use this variable to invoke this
role from other roles or from multiple places in a single playbook as an
alternative to using a drop-in directory. The sshd_skip_defaults
is
ignored and no system defaults are used in this case.
When this variable is set, the role places the configuration that you specify to configuration snippets in a existing configuration file under the given namespace. You need to select different namespaces when invoking the role several times.
Note that limitations of the openssh configuration file still apply. For example, only the first option specified in a configuration file is effective for most of the variables.
Technically, the role places snippets in Match all
blocks, unless they
contain other match blocks, to ensure they are applied regardless of the
previous match blocks in the existing configuration file. This allows
configuring any non-conflicting options from different roles
invocations.
-
sshd_config_owner
,sshd_config_group
,sshd_config_mode
Use these variables to set the ownership and permissions for the openssh config file that this role produces.
-
sshd_verify_hostkeys
By default (auto), this list contains all the host keys that are present in the produced configuration file. If there are none, the OpenSSH default list will be used after excluding non-FIPS approved keys in FIPS mode. The paths are checked for presence and new keys are generated if they are missing. Additionally, permissions and file owners are set to sane defaults. This is useful if the role is used in deployment stage to make sure the service is able to start on the first attempt.
To disable this check, set this to empty list.
-
sshd_hostkey_owner
,sshd_hostkey_group
,sshd_hostkey_mode
Use these variables to set the ownership and permissions for the host keys from the above list.
Secondary role variables
These variables are used by the role internals and can be used to override the defaults that correspond to each supported platform. They are not tested and generally are not needed as the role will determine them from the OS type.
-
sshd_packages
Use this variable to override the default list of packages to install.
-
sshd_binary
The path to the openssh executable
-
sshd_service
The name of the openssh service. By default, this variable contains the
name of the ssh service that the target platform uses. But it can also
be used to set the name of the custom ssh service when the
sshd_install_service
variable is used.
-
sshd_sftp_server
Default path to the sftp server binary.
Variables Exported by the Role
-
sshd_has_run
This variable is set to true after the role was successfully executed.
Dependencies
None
For tests the ansible.posix
collection is required for the mount
role to emulate FIPS mode.
Example Playbook
DANGER! This example is to show the range of configuration this role provides. Running it will likely break your SSH access to the server!
---
- hosts: all
vars:
sshd_skip_defaults: true
sshd:
Compression: true
ListenAddress:
- "0.0.0.0"
- "::"
GSSAPIAuthentication: no
Match:
- Condition: "Group user"
GSSAPIAuthentication: yes
sshd_UsePrivilegeSeparation: no
sshd_match:
- Condition: "Group xusers"
X11Forwarding: yes
roles:
- role: rhel-system-roles.sshd
Results in:
# Ansible managed: ...
Compression yes
GSSAPIAuthentication no
UsePrivilegeSeparation no
Match Group user
GSSAPIAuthentication yes
Match Group xusers
X11Forwarding yes
Since Ansible 2.4, the role can be invoked using include_role
keyword,
for example:
---
- hosts: all
become: true
tasks:
- name: "Configure sshd"
include_role:
name: rhel-system-roles.sshd
vars:
sshd_skip_defaults: true
sshd:
Compression: true
ListenAddress:
- "0.0.0.0"
- "::"
GSSAPIAuthentication: no
Match:
- Condition: "Group user"
GSSAPIAuthentication: yes
sshd_UsePrivilegeSeparation: no
sshd_match:
- Condition: "Group xusers"
X11Forwarding: yes
You can just add a configuration snippet with the
sshd_config_namespace
option:
---
- hosts: all
tasks:
- name: Configure sshd to accept some useful environment variables
include_role:
name: ansible-sshd
vars:
sshd_config_namespace: accept-env
sshd:
# there are some handy environment variables to accept
AcceptEnv:
LANG
LS_COLORS
EDITOR
The following snippet will be added to the default configuration file (if not yet present):
# BEGIN sshd system role managed block: namespace accept-env
Match all
AcceptEnv LANG LS_COLORS EDITOR
# END sshd system role managed block: namespace accept-env
More example playbooks can be found in examples/
directory.
Template Generation
The sshd_config.j2
and
sshd_config_snippet.j2
templates are programatically generated by the scripts in meta. New
options should be added to the options_body
and/or options_match
.
To regenerate the templates, from within the meta/
directory run:
./make_option_lists
License
LGPLv3
Authors
Matt Willsher matt@willsher.systems
© 2014,2015 Willsher Systems Ltd.
Jakub Jelen jjelen@redhat.com
© 2020 - 2022 Red Hat, Inc.