Chapter 14. Setting a custom cryptographic policy across systems

As an administrator, you can use the crypto_policies RHEL System Role to quickly and consistently configure custom cryptographic policies across many different systems using the Ansible Core package.

14.1. crypto_policies System Role variables and facts

In a crypto_policies System Role playbook, you can define the parameters for the crypto_policies configuration file according to your preferences and limitations.

If you do not configure any variables, the System Role does not configure the system and only reports the facts.

Selected variables for the crypto_policies System Role

crypto_policies_policy
Determines the cryptographic policy the System Role applies to the managed nodes. For details about the different crypto policies, see System-wide cryptographic policies .
crypto_policies_reload
If set to yes, the affected services, currently the ipsec, bind, and sshd services, reload after applying a crypto policy. Defaults to yes.
crypto_policies_reboot_ok
If set to yes, and a reboot is necessary after the System Role changes the crypto policy, it sets crypto_policies_reboot_required to yes. Defaults to no.

Facts set by the crypto_policies System Role

crypto_policies_active
Lists the currently selected policy.
crypto_policies_available_policies
Lists all available policies available on the system.
crypto_policies_available_subpolicies
Lists all available subpolicies available on the system.

14.2. Setting a custom cryptographic policy using the crypto_policies System Role

You can use the crypto_policies System Role to configure a large number of managed nodes consistently from a single control node.

Prerequisites

  • Access and permissions to one or more managed nodes, which are systems you want to configure with the crypto_policies System Role.
  • Access and permissions to a control node, which is a system from which Red Hat Ansible Core configures other systems.

    On the control node:

    • The ansible-core and rhel-system-roles packages are installed.
Important

RHEL 8.0-8.5 provided access to a separate Ansible repository that contains Ansible Engine 2.9 for automation based on Ansible. Ansible Engine contains command-line utilities such as ansible, ansible-playbook, connectors such as docker and podman, and many plugins and modules. For information on how to obtain and install Ansible Engine, see the How to download and install Red Hat Ansible Engine Knowledgebase article.

RHEL 8.6 and 9.0 have introduced Ansible Core (provided as the ansible-core package), which contains the Ansible command-line utilities, commands, and a small set of built-in Ansible plugins. RHEL provides this package through the AppStream repository, and it has a limited scope of support. For more information, see the Scope of support for the Ansible Core package included in the RHEL 9 and RHEL 8.6 and later AppStream repositories Knowledgebase article.

  • An inventory file which lists the managed nodes.

Procedure

  1. Create a new playbook.yml file with the following content:

    ---
    - hosts: all
      tasks:
      - name: Configure crypto policies
        include_role:
          name: rhel-system-roles.crypto_policies
        vars:
          - crypto_policies_policy: FUTURE
          - crypto_policies_reboot_ok: true

    You can replace the FUTURE value with your preferred crypto policy, for example: DEFAULT, LEGACY, and FIPS:OSPP.

    The crypto_policies_reboot_ok: true variable causes the system to reboot after the System Role changes the cryptographic policy.

    For more details, see crypto_policies System Role variables and facts .

  2. Optional: Verify playbook syntax.

    # ansible-playbook --syntax-check playbook.yml
  3. Run the playbook on your inventory file:

    # ansible-playbook -i inventory_file playbook.yml

Verification

  1. On the control node, create another playbook named, for example, verify_playbook.yml:

    - hosts: all
      tasks:
     - name: Verify active crypto policy
       include_role:
         name: rhel-system-roles.crypto_policies
    
     - debug:
         var: crypto_policies_active

    This playbook does not change any configurations on the system, only reports the active policy on the managed nodes.

  2. Run the playbook on the same inventory file:

    # ansible-playbook -i inventory_file verify_playbook.yml
    
    TASK [debug] **************************
    ok: [host] => {
        "crypto_policies_active": "FUTURE"
    }

    The "crypto_policies_active": variable shows the policy active on the managed node.

14.3. Additional resources