Access Credentials Management

This page explains how the toolkit manages network access credentials.

Ansible Vault

This plugin handles user authentication by way of using user credentials located in Ansible Vault files. By default, the plugin looks up user credentials in ~/.ansible.vault.yml file. The safe option points to the default location of the file.

A user creates the file by running ansible-vault create ~/.ansible.vault.yml command. Upon the creation of the file, the Ansible Vault prompts the user of a password. This password is used to decrypt the content of the vault.

The encrypted file is a plain text file. The first line of the file contains a header. The header specifies the version of Ansible Vault, encryption type, and looks like this.

$ANSIBLE_VAULT;1.1;AES256

A user edits the file with ansible-vault edit ~/.ansible.vault.yml command.

A user may save the password to unlock the vault in ~/.ansible.vault.key file. By default, the plugin uses lockpick option to determine the location of the file unlocking the vault.

For example, the below instruction tells the plugin that the password for the vault is located in /opt/admin/unlock.key. The authentication credentials for the task are located in /opt/admin/auth.yml.

- name: collect data from network nodes
  action: ndmtk output="/tmp/data" safe="/opt/admin/auth.yml" lockpick="/opt/admin/unlock.key"

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Credentials Structure and Format

The expected way to store access credentials is in YAML format. The data structure used is a list of hashes, where each hash represents a single credentials set.

Each hash in the list contains a subset of the following fields:

• regex (regular expression): if the regular expression in this field in a hash matches the FQDN or short name of a device, then the hash is preferred over any any other hash having the same or higher priority. However, if there is no match, then the hash is not used.
• priority (numeric): the field prioritizes the use of credentials. The entry with lower priority is preferred over the entry with higher priority when multiple entries match a regular expression pattern.
• default (boolean): if this field is present and it is set to yes, then this credential will be used in the absense of a regex match.
• description (text, optional): it provides an explanation about an entry.
• username
• password
• enable: this credential is used when prompted to provide enable password. currently, there is no distinction between enable levels.

In the below example a user entered two sets of credentials. The first entry is used for a specific device, i.e. ny-fw01. The second entry is used by default when there is no regular expression matching network device host name.

---
credentials:
- regex: ny-fw01
  username: admin
  password: 'NX23nKz!'
  password_enable: '3nKz!NX2'
  priority: 1
  description: NY-FW01 password
- default: yes
  username: greenpau
  password: 'My#DefaultPass'
  password_enable: 'Enabled#By$Default'
  priority: 1
  description: my default password

Considerations:

• There should be no default credential with the same priority level.
• There should be no credential with both regex and default fields present

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Multi-factor Authentication Internals

When an Ansible playbook contains tasks related to ndmtk plugin, Ansible invokes ndmtk callback plugin. The plugin performs lookup the lookup of access credentials in Ansible Vault.

By default, the plugin looks for safe and lockpick task arguments. If they are not defined, the plugin attempts to read ~/.ansible.vault.yml (safe) and ~/.ansible.vault.key (lockpick) files. The looked up access credentials are stored in task['args']['credentials'] list and passed to ndmtk action plugin.

The action plugin invokes _load_credentials() function to parse the list. The function returns a list of dictionaries.

[
 {u'description': u'SDN Production Cisco Nexus Leaf Switches',
  u'password': u'pin,token',
  u'password_enable': u'pin,token',
  u'pin': u'4526',
  u'priority': 1,
  u'regex': u'^ny-fw02$',
  u'token': u'~/token.bypass',
  u'username': u'greenpau'},
 {u'default': True,
  u'description': u'my default password',
  u'password': u'POC123',
  u'password_enable': u'POC123',
  u'priority': 1,
  u'username': u'admin'}
]

When the plugin prepares for the connectivity it takes out one access credentials set (FIFO) and puts it in self.activekey variable.

Later, when prompted for the password by a remote device. It fetches the credentials from that variable using _get_item_from_key() function.

When a credential set fails, the plugin will lookup additional credentials.

fatal: [ny-fw02]: FAILED! => {
    "changed": false,
    "data_dir": "/opt/data/ansible/poc-conf-20170221190959/ny-fw02",
    "failed": true,
    "junit": "/opt/data/ansible/poc-conf-20170221190959/ny-fw02/ny-fw02.junit.xml",
    "msg": "authentication failed",
    "temp_dir": "/Users/greenpau/.ansible/tmp/ndmtk/56cce459-f869-11e6-94e9-f45c89b1bb39/56d9c178-f869-11e6-a3a9-f45c89b1bb39/ny-fw02"
}

When dealing with credentials requiring PIN and Soft or Hard Token, a user must provide the path to read tokens via token key inside of access credentials hash. For example, the below hash instructs the plugin to user PIN plus Token combination for password. The PIN is 1234 and the token can be found in ~/token.bypass.

- regex: '^ny-fw01$'
  username: 'greenpau'
  password: 'pin,token'
  password_enable: 'pin,token'
  token: '~/.token.bypass'
  pin: '1234'
  priority: 1
  description: 'Token-authenticated device'

A user populates the ~/token.bypass file via CLI command. For example, the below command send Token 4562356 to ~/token.bypass. Additionally, the user specifies the amount of time the Token will be active, i.e. 10. The plugin uses the information to determine whether the token is valid or not.

date "+%s;572680;10" > ~/.token.bypass

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